Russomania: British Modernism and the Translation of Russian Culture

This research provides a comprehensive account of the breadth and depth of the British fascination with Russian and Soviet culture, tracing its transformative effect on literary and intellectual life in Britain from the 1880s to the 1940s. Consideration of a 'long modernist' period makes it possible to track the place of Russian culture in, on the one hand, late Victorian debates about the future of English literature, and on the other, British responses to Soviet realism and anti-modernism-as well as to consider the impact of the political changes of those years.

Although there has been surprisingly little attention to this subject in the last fifty years, in the early phase of what we would now call modernist studies, research into British writers' engagement with Russian literature made an important contribution to the understanding of early twentieth-century literary developments: Helen Muchnic's Dostoevsky's English Reputation, 1881-1936 (1939), Gilbert Phelps's The Russian Novel in English Fiction (1956), and Donald Davie's collection, Russian Literature and Modern English Fiction (1965) all argued for the centrality of Russian literature to British modernism, especially to the modernist novel. But these accounts were limited by their commitment to an exclusively literary model of authorial influence. This study argues that the most significant impact of Russian culture is not to be found in stylistic borrowings, but in shaping the defining questions of the modernist literary experiment: the relation between language and action (abstraction vs. the concrete), the relation between writer and audience (individual vs. mass), and the relation between the literary work and lived experience (the nature of realism).

These questions cannot be understood in a narrowly literary frame, nor by using the binary and passive model of authorial influence. Instead, this project derives its methodology from studies of translation, understood as a 'cultural political practice' that inscribes social and political affiliations and effects in the translated text (Venuti,1993). This definition of translation as a nexus of power relations provides a tool with which to analyse not only the literary translations with which this study is concerned, but also the broader cultural exchange. Thus, the translation of Russian culture from its variety of source texts into the target language of British culture is conceived as a dynamic event, from which a narrative of early twentieth-century cultural politics can be read. Although the emphasis of the project is on the process of translation, dissemination and reception in Britain, comparison with Russian sources and their Russian reception is integral to the argument.

In providing a history of the dynamics of cultural exchange between Russia and Britain, this project contributes to the current increased interest in the relationship between the two countries.

This project will benefit:

- Arts programmers. There has been increasing interest in the early twentieth century as we move towards the centenaries of its major events. The period has been the focus not only of documentaries and radio debates (Radio 4's 'In Our Time' broadcast debates on 'Literary Modernism' and 'Modernist Utopias' in 2001 and 2005), but also drama ('Downton Abbey'). The next few years will bring the centenaries of the Great War and of the Russian Revolutions, historical events that generate particularly strong interest, and my excavation of information about the role of British cultural figures in both should inform subsequent accounts. I have been in touch with the Arts Development team at the BBC about my research, and its potential for future documentary series.

- Librarians. By drawing attention to connections between early twentieth-century intellectual networks, my research will assist librarians in presenting their collections to a broader readership. My conference, 'Russia in Britain', was accompanied by an exhibition of the Senate House Library's recent acquisition, the M.S. Anderson Collection of Writings on Russia. It is a condition of the collection that it is exhibited regularly, and the conference provided the opportunity for the collection's first exhibition. Dr Bullock and I advised Dr Karen Attar on the selection of materials and their explanatory texts. My book is one of the first to use the Anderson Collection, and will therefore promote the library's holdings and inform its future exhibitions.

- Curators. Major British galleries have also increased their attention to twentieth-century movements: the Victoria and Albert Museum's 'Modernism: Designing a New World' (2006), the Royal Academy's 'Wild Thing: Epstein/ Gaudier-Brzeksa/ Gill' (2009-10), and Tate Britain's 'The Vorticists: Manifesto for a Modern World' (2011) all demonstrated a fascination with modernism's utopian ambitions directly addressed by my work. There has also been a marked increase in exhibition of Russian and Soviet art: from the Royal Academy's 'From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings, 1870-1925' to the Hayward Gallery's 'Alexander Rodchenko' retrospective (both 2008). I have frequently contributed to symposia associated with exhibitions ('The Vorticists' at the Tate, 'Blasting the Future' at the Estorick Collection), and have also acted as a peer reviewer and contributor of website material to the Camden Town Group online research project at the Tate, to be launched in May 2011. The Research Coordinator for that project began her research into the Camden Town Group in my MA course that grew out of my research on Russian culture in Britain, and her article for the project draws on the discussions of that class. I will continue to maintain these contacts, and disseminate my research in this way.

- Taught students. As the example above demonstrates, research-led teaching is a significant means of creating impact beyond the academy, especially in such a widely taught discipline as English. Students to whom I have taught my undergraduate 'Russia in Britain' course and my Masters' level 'Modernism and the Ideal Society' course have gone on to become teachers, arts administrators, and documentary makers, as well as academics, and my ongoing teaching and publishing about an interdisciplinary, international modernism therefore informs, if indirectly, British cultural programmes.

- The wider public. I have consistently sought to disseminate my work to the general public by speaking at open arts events. The Anglo-Russian Research Network will disseminate its research as widely as possible, and to this end has chosen (1) to hold its meetings outside the academy at Pushkin House, London, founded in London in 1951 as a politically neutral Russian cultural centre, and a centre of activity for those interested in Russian culture, and (2) to disseminate information about its work through on-line resources.