Translated by Goblin

In this chapter translation is employed as a metaphor for the process of re-examining and re-deploying previous cultural myths, paradigms, and discourses that has been at work in Russia since 1991 as part of the post-communist nation building project. The chapter provides an analytical account of film translations made by Goblin (aka Dmitrii Iur’evich Puchkov) in relation to digital technologies, the film industry and the associated artistic environment in post-Soviet Russia. The chapter focuses on the translator as a figure of cultural authority in a post-censorship state, which is in the process of re-negotiating economic and financial conditions, including intellectual property, in a more globalized world. The chapter traces the changes in the ideological and aesthetic role of translation since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The analysis focuses on the global flows of cultural production and on the role of translators in the process of domestication of global products. The chapter advances the notion of translation as a creative means of cultural opposition and productive transformations.