He Brothers Karamazov in French: Translations, Anti-Translations, Re-Translations

The article focuses on the problems of re-translation of a literary text, i. e. on a new translation of a work that already exists in the host culture in translations, made at the previous stages of literary evolution. The lexeme re-translation might seem misleading, if understood as a reworking of an existing translation. In fact, what is discussed here is one of the key concepts in the theory of literary translation of the new century, with its meaning conveyed in the following motto: while the 20th century was the century of translation, the 21st is the century of re-translation, that is, of the emergence and justification of new translations of classical works of world literature. These general arguments are substantiated through the historical analysis of a specific situation surrounding Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov after the emergence of a new translation, published on November 9, 2023 in Paris by Gallmeister.