Translating from Mariupolitan Greek, A Severely Endangered Language, into Ukrainian: Historiographic and Sociological Perspectives

Abstract

The article examines selected aspects of translation from Mariupolitan Greek, a severely endangered language, into Ukrainian. It concentrates on the sociological factors and the various agents involved in the translation process, combining insights from the so called sociological turn and activist turn in Translation Studies (e.g. Wolf 2007; Tymoczko 2010; Brownlie 2010). Adopting a sociological approach to literary translation, it examines certain macro-social factors (geographic ‘positionality’, habitus, etc.) as well as micro-social aspects (i.e. how individuals interact and what motivates or inspires a translator to translate a text for a new readership in the target culture). In particular, the article discusses the issues of causality, the circumstances of textual production, as well as the social implications and reception of translated texts.