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Queer Ventriloquism and “Trans/creation” of Self: Valerii Pereleshin’s Translation of Qu Yuan, Shakespeare and Pessoa and his Autofictional Poetry

Leung, Wai Ping; (2024) Queer Ventriloquism and “Trans/creation” of Self: Valerii Pereleshin’s Translation of Qu Yuan, Shakespeare and Pessoa and his Autofictional Poetry. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This study explores the translations and poetry of Russian émigré writer Valerii Pereleshin (1913-1992), examining how his translations from Chinese, English, and Portuguese into Russian interact with his experimental poetic works in the 1970s. My thesis commences with an analysis of Pereleshin’s translation of the classical Chinese poem Li Sao (Encountering Sorrow) by Qu Yuan (340?–278 B.C.E.), in which Pereleshin’s treatment of the poem’s ambiguities enables him to ventriloquise and present a queer version of the poem, followed by a short discussion of Pereleshin’s translation of Brazilian literature in Southern Cross (1978), which demonstrates an increasing boldness in queer ventriloquism and creative renditions of the originals. The main part of the thesis investigates the “mystical triangle” of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), and Pereleshin. Looking into Pereleshin’s translation/transposition of Pessoa’s Portuguese poems and 35 Sonnets (written in English), as well as Shakespeare’s sonnets, I explore the literary trialogue of the three poets as manifest in Pereleshin’s translations and Ariel (1976). Instead of reading Ariel merely as the poet’s “literary coming-out,” I study how Pessoa’s and Shakespeare’s work prepares Pereleshin for the development of his autofictional poetry, whereby his queer poetic self is expressed through the interweaving of fact and fiction. The last section analyses Pereleshin’s fashioning of a multi-faceted literary self through the use of dramatic characters, inspired by Pessoa’s concept of heteronyms and Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, in his poetic autobiography Poem without a Subject (completed in 1976). Through a transcultural reading of Pereleshin’s works, I attempt to surpass limitations in analysing Pereleshin’s works solely as émigré or LGBT literature, which underrates his polylingual and polycultural literary engagement with his predecessors and his poetic innovation.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification: Ph.D
Title: Queer Ventriloquism and “Trans/creation” of Self: Valerii Pereleshin’s Translation of Qu Yuan, Shakespeare and Pessoa and his Autofictional Poetry
Language: English
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10189723
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