“A FREE TRANSLATION IS AN INCORRECT TRANSLATION”: ON THE DICHOTOMY OF FIDELITY AND FREEDOM IN IVAN FRANKO’S TRANSLATION CONCEPT

Abstract

The aim of this publication is to reconstruct the views of Ivan Franko, a prominent Ukrainian writer, translator, public figure, and scholar whose works laid the foundation of Ukrainian Translation Studies, on the dichotomy between fidelity and freedom in translation. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study is grounded in the theory of social space developed by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. According to Bourdieu’s theory, a field exerts influence on its agents, while their behavior within the field is shaped by the field itself, by their habitus – a set of behavioral and mental mechanisms – and by various forms of capital (economic, social, cultural, and symbolic) that the participants bring into the field. Using Bourdieu’s tripartite hierarchical model, initially proposed for literary studies and effectively extrapolated to Translation Studies by representatives of the social approach, this research examines the constellation of the literary and translational fields from the late 19th century to the early decades of the 20th century. It explores how these fields were shaped and modified by socio-political, economic, and cultural factors. The novelty of the study lies in its demonstration, for the first time, of how the dominant culture of translation influenced the evolution of Franko’s views on the choice of strategies, such as free versus faithful translation, and the distinctions between translation and adaptation (rewriting, imitation). Based on Franko’s explicit statements gathered from his paratexts, literary-critical and literary-historical works, correspondence, and other sources, the study generalizes his understanding of key concepts such as “fidelity,” “literalness,” and “adaptation (rewriting, imitation)”. Furthermore, it attempts to outline the criteria by which Franko distinguished adaptations (rewriting, imitation) from translations. The research concludes with insights into the diachronic shifts in Franko’s views on the issue of free versus faithful translation, shaped by the growing crystallization of faithful translation as the sole standard in Ukrainian Translation Studies.