Susanna Witt, born in 1962 in Stockholm, studied Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, Ukrainian) and linguistics in Stockholm and Moscow. She wrote her doctoral thesis on Boris Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago" with particular reference to the image of artistic creation presented in the novel (Stockholm, 2000). Her scholarly interests include Russian literary modernism, literary translation as a cultural phenomenon in Russia, and Soviet culture of the Stalin period. She has worked on the research projects "Cultures in Dialogue" and "The Images of Language, the Language of Images" at Södertörn University College 1997-2002, and was a junior research fellow at the Department of Modern Languages, Uppsala University 2002-2007. She has taught Russian and Russian literature and culture on several levels and is currently supervising a thesis on the history of literary translation from Russian into Swedish (Nils Håkanson, Uppsala University).
Dr. Witt is a member of the editorial board of Slavica Bergensia and of the Federation of Authorised Translators in Sweden (FAT).
Current research
The research project "Totalitarianism and Translation: Control and Conflict in Soviet Translation Practices 1932-1953" (financed by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation) runs for the period 2009-2011. The aim of the project is to establish literary translation as an object of research in studies of the culture of the Stalin period. Recent theoretical developments in translation studies, as well as new source material, are used to revise the picture of Soviet culture in this period. To translate into Russian was to contribute to the creation of a global, socialist-realist canon, as well as a Soviet canon of "representative" expressions of national minority cultures. Unofficially, it also became a haven for unpublishable authors. A translation, having at least two authors, is an ambiguous text. In this project, Bakhtin's concept of the utterance as a play between "one's own word" and "the word of the other" is applied to translations, whereby questions of power and responsibility are put to the fore. The project combines critical analysis of the discourse on translation of the time with a study of a few significant translation practices.
It focuses on literary translation as a pragmatic "no man's land" that could be utilised by different agents. The material is analysed in terms of "culture planning", strategies for incurring cultural change (Toury). Special attention is paid to the Soviet use of interlinear trots as an institutionalised "creative space" between source and target texts.
Publications
Monograph
2000
Creating Creation: Readings of Pasternak's Doktor Zhivago (Diss., Stockholm Studies in Russian Literature 33), Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 160 s. (review articles: Maja Linthe, Zeitschrift für Slawistik 46, 2001, pp. 476-477; Barry P. Scherr, Slavic and East European Journal Vol. 46, No. 3, Autumn 2002, pp. 599-600)
Books (as editor)
2008
(w. Ingunn Lunde) Terminal Øst: Totalitære og posttotalitære diskurser, Bergen: Spartacus, 319 pp.
2004
(w. Karin Grelz) Telling Forms. 30 Essays in Honour of Peter Alberg Jensen (Stockholm Studies in Russian Literature 37), Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 424 pp.
1993
(w. Per-Arne Bodin & Barbro Nilsson) Jerzy Faryno, Belaia medveditsa, ol'kha, motovilikha i khromoi iz gospod: Arkheopoetika Pasternaka (Meddelanden från Institutionen för slaviska och baltiska språk nr 29), Stockholm, 84 pp.
Scholarly papers
2011
»Arts of Accommodation: The First All-Union Conference of Translators, Moscow, 1936, and the Ideologization of Norms,» in: The Art of Accommodation: Literary Translation in Russia, eds Leon Burnett & Emily Lygo, Oxford: Peter Lang, 33 pp. (in print)
»Translatio imperii: aspekter på nationalitetsöversättning under Stalintiden,» in: Litteratur i gränszonen: transnationella litteraturer ur ett nordiskt perspektiv, eds Christina Kullberg & Elisabeth Bladh, Falun: Högskolan i Dalarna, pp. 35–52.
»Between the Lines: Totalitarianism and Translation in the USSR,» in: Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts: Literary Translation in Eastern Europe and Russia, ed. Brian James Baer, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 149–170.
»Totalitarizm i perevod: kontekst Dzhambula,» in: Dzhambul Dzhabaev. Prikliucheniia kazakhskogo akyna v sovetskoi kul'ture, eds Konstantin Bogdanov & Riccardo Nicolosi, Moskva: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 20 pp. (in print)
2009
»Epistemologiia poetiki (Neskol'ko nabliudenii nad ›Okhrannoi gramotoi› Pasternaka),» in: Iazyk kak mediator mezhdu znaniem i iskusstvom. Problemy mezhdistsiplinarnykh issledovanii khudozhestvennogo teksta, ed. Natalia Fateeva, Institut russkogo iazyka im. V.V. Vinogradova, RAN, Moskva: Azbukovnik, pp. 161–166.
»Pasternak's Iskazhenie and the Practice of Creative Evolution,» in: From Poets to Padonki: Linguistic Authority and Norm Negotiation in Modern Russian Culture, eds Ingunn Lunde & Martin Paulsen (Slavica Bergensia 9), Bergen: University of Bergen, pp. 212–227.
»Pasternaks begynnelser: till autofiktionens poetik,» in: The Arts in Dialogue. Essays in honour of Fiona Björling, eds Johanna Lindbladh et al. Lund: Lund University, pp. 323–336.
»›Nature› in Doctor Zhivago,» in: The Life of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago (Stanford Slavic Studies 37), ed. Lazar Fleishman, Stanford: Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literature, pp. 156–172.
2008
»O prostranstve lesa v poetike Pasternaka,» in: ›Liubov' prostranstva...› Poetika mesta v tvorchestve Borisa Pasternaka, ed. V. Abashev, Moskva: Iazyki slavianskoi kul'tury, pp. 175–187.
»Portfölj med dubbla bottnar: litterär översättning i Sovjetunionen,» in: Konsten att översätta. Föreläsningar vid Södertörns högskolas Litterära översättarseminarium 1998-2008, ed. Lars Kleberg, Huddinge: Södertörns högskola, pp. 203-216.
»Tala tvåstämmigt: totalitarism och översättning,» in: Terminal Øst: Totalitære og posttotalitære diskurser, eds Ingunn Lunde & Susanna Witt, Bergen: Spartacus, pp. 215-233.
(w. Ingunn Lunde:) »Totalitære og posttotalitære diskurser: Innledning,» in: Terminal Øst: Totalitære og posttotalitære diskurser, eds Ingunn Lunde & Susanna Witt, Bergen: Spartacus, pp. 9-19.
2004
(w. Lars Kleberg:) »Drama v Drame: strashnaia mest' Chekhova?» in: Telling Forms. 30 Essays in Honour of Peter Alberg Jensen (Stockholm Studies in Russian Literature 37), eds Karin Grelz & Susanna Witt, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, pp. 183-196.
2003
»Showing and Hiding: the Paradoxical Modernism of Boris Pasternak,» in: Swedish-Polish Modernism. Literature—Language—Culture. Conference held in Cracow, Poland, April 20-21 2001 (Konferenser 56. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien), eds Malgorzata Anna Packalén & Sven Gustavsson, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, pp. 139-146.
»Perevod kak mimikriia: Gamlet Pasternaka,» in: Swedish Contributions to the Thirteenth International Congress of Slavists, Ljubljana, 15-21 August 2003 (Slavica Lundensia Supplementa 2), eds Birgitta Englund Dimitrova & Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath, Lund, pp. 145-156.
2001
»›... almaznyi khmel' s dushi›: K interpretatsii stikhotvoreniia Pasternaka ›Nasha groza›,» in: Studia Russica XIX (Budapest, 2001), pp. 279–283.
2000
»Gastronomicheskaia metafizika Pasternaka,» in: Severnyi sbornik: Proceedings of the NorFA Network in Russian Literature 1995-2000, eds Peter Alberg Jensen & Ingunn Lunde (Stockholm Studies in Russian Literature 34), Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, pp. 267-276.
»Mimikriia v Doktore Zhivago,» in: V krugu Zhivago. Pasternakovskii sbornik, ed. Lazar Fleishman (Stanford Slavic Studies 22), Stanford: Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literature, pp. 87-122.
1998
»Master i Margarita – teatral'nyj roman?» in: Semiotika, Sign Systems Studies, vol. 26, eds Peeter Torop, Mikhail Lotman & Kalevi Kull, Tartu, pp. 299-318.
1997
»›Poety› Mariny Tsvetaevoi: Popytka analiza i istoriia odnogo posviashcheniia,» in: Den' poezii Mariny Tsvetaevoi: Sbornik statei (Russica Aboensia 2), eds Barbara Lönnqvist & Larisa Mokroborodova, Åbo/Turku, pp. 24-48.
1994
»›Doktor Zhivopis'›: O ›romanakh› Borisa Pasternaka Doktor Zhivago,» in: Klassitsizm i modernizm: Sbornik statei, eds I. Avramets, P. Alberg Jensen, L. Kiseleva & al., Tartu: Tartu ülikooli kirjastus, pp. 140-167.
Popular articles etc.
2008
»Tog I, II, III,» Till presentationen av boken Terminal Øst: Totalitære og posttotalitære diskurser, Bergen, 5 March 2008.
2004
»Plötsligt!» [On Dostoevskii's ›The Idiot›] in: Idioten, Program, Göteborgs stadsteater, pp. 3-6.
2003
»Pusjkins ›Spader dam› — och Tjajkovskijs,» in: Spader dam. Opera av Pjotr Iljitj Tjajkovskij, Göteborgsoperan, pp. 11-12.
2002, »Om livet i Sovjet — inte en kackerlacka nämns» [review of Maria Zennström, Katarinas sovjetiska upplevelser, Bonniers 2001], Bulletin Nr 1/02, april 2002, Sällskapet för studier av Ryssland, Central- och Östeuropa samt Centralasien, pp. 11-12.
2001, »Skapandet under lupp» in: Forskardagarna 2001, Stockholm: Stockholms universitet (2 pp.)
Translations
2006
[from Ukrainian] Poems by Iurii Andrukhovych, Halyna Kruk and Serhii Zhadan for Stockholms poesifestival and the Swedish Institute.
2005
[from Russian] Irina Sandomirskaia, »Ridikylen» in: Handväskan i samtidskonsten / The Handbag in Contemporary Art, 12 november 2005-26 februari 2006, Galleri 3 [Exhibition catalogue], Stockholm: Kulturhuset, pp. 7-9.
2001
[from English] Irina Sandomirskaia, »Konsten på spaning innanför nödvändighetens murar» in: Konst på SÖS. Essäer om konst på sjukhus och i annan institutionsmiljö, red. Ann Magnusson, Stockholm: Stockholms läns landsting, pp. 63-87.
2000
[from Ukrainian] Poems by Andrukhovych, Bilocerkivets', Dovhan, Irvanets', Ariel, nr 3, pp. 24-25, 54-66.
1999
[from Ukrainian] Poems by Oksana Zabuzhko, Ariel, nr 4, pp. 14-24.
1998
[from Russian] Irina Sandomirskaia, »Landskap med vandringsman» [on Boris Gasparov's book Iazyk, pamiat', obraz], Dialoger nr 46, pp. 37-39.
1995
[from Russian] Ur tsarpalatsets garderob: Eremitaget i S:t Petersburg gästar Livrustkammaren [Exhibition catalogue, Livrustkammaren], Stockholm, 50 pp.
Conferences
2011
17–20 November, ASEEES 43rd Annual Convention, Washington DC, presentation of paper, organizer of the panel "Authority and Authorship: Literary Translation in the Soviet Union"
2010
"Utomeropeisk litteratur i Sverige — översättning, reception och funktion," Institute for Interpretation and Translation Studies, Stockholm University, 19 November (invited participant, presentation of paper)
"Ryska: från totalitärt till posttotalitärt språk," symposium at Stockholm University, organized by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures (SU) and Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies, 15 October, (invited participant, presentation of paper)
18 Congress of Scandinavian Slavists, Tampere, 18–22 August (presentation of paper)
ICCEES VIII World Congress, Stockholm, 26–31 July (panel organizer, presentation of paper)
2009
"Litteratur i gränszonen: transnationella litteraturer ur ett nordiskt perspektiv," Högskolan i Dalarna, Falun, 18–20 November (presentation of paper)
"Literature, Geography, Translation: The New Comparative Horizons," Uppsala University, 11–13 June (presentation of paper)
"Gasparovskie chteniia" (Gasparov Readings), Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU), Moscow, 9–11 April (invited participant, presentation of paper)
2008
"Iazyk kak mediator mezhdu znaniem i iskusstvom," Nauchnyi tsentr mezhdisciplinarnykh issledovanii khudozhestvennogo teksta Instituta russkogo iazyka, RAN, Moscow, 20–22 November (invited participant, presentation of paper)
"Boris Pasternak and the Language of Inspiration," Lund 10–11 October (invited participant, presentation of paper)
"Landslide of the Norm V: Norm Negotiations," Bergen 16–20 September (invited participant, presentation of paper)
"Pushkin's Post-horses: Literary Translation in Russian Culture," University of Exeter, UK, 14–15 April (presentation of paper)
"Landslide of the Norm IV: The Sociology of Language and Literature," University of Passau, 10–13 January (invited participant, presentation of paper)
2007
"Buon Compleanno Dottor Zivago 1957–2007," Feltrinelli Foundation, Milan, 26–27 November (invited participant, presentation of paper)
"The Life of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago: Culture and the Cold War," Stanford University (dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the novel), 19–20 October (invited participant, presentation of paper)
First National Conference of the Swedish Society for the Study of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Stockholm, 9 November (presentation of paper)
17th Meeting of Scandinavian Slavists, Copenhagen, 6–11 August (presentation of paper)
"Landslide of the Norm III: Creative Landslide of the Norm," University of Edinburgh, 7–10 June (invited participant, presentation of paper)
Symposium dedicated to the 70th birthday of professor Jostein Børtnes, University of Bergen, 21 April (presentation of paper)
"Totalitære og posttotalitære diskurser: Litteraturen og historien," University of Bergen, 26–27 January (presentation of paper)