The Joyce schemes and their importance to the first Ulysses translations in Russia of 1920-1930s

Abstract

The article reviews the world famous novel of the Irish writer James Joyce, "Ulysses", published in Paris in 1922 in terms of the study of its Russian reception regarding the schemes of the novel. In 1920-1921 Joyce compiled two schemes on "Ulysses": the first scheme was made for private use only; the second scheme was prepared for the public lecture on "Ulysses". Soon the information on the schemes became known to the press and in 1923 the information on "Ulysses" appeared in the Soviet press; the data source was mainly the French press. In 1924 and in 1929 the first "Ulysses" translations into French saw the light. In 1925 there was published the first Russian translation of "Ulysses" which was followed by four more translation attempts of 1929, 1934, 1935 and 1936; together they represented the system of "Ulysses" Russian reception. The study of this issue led to the Reception Theory as the methodological basis of the investigation. The scope of this research is the need to trace the influence of the Joyce's schemes on the first Russian translations of the 1920-1930s.