A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
Translation as fraud : Tracing the imagined original of a Russian
pseudotranslation book series; 
Authors: Carlström, Malin
Editors: Malin Carlström and Richard Pleijel
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Benjamins Translation Library
Book title : A (Re)turn to the Source Text
Series title: Benjamins Translation Library
Number in series: 169
First page : 35
Last page: 64
ISBN: 978-90-272-3391-2
eISBN: 978-90-272-4397-3
ISSN: 0929-7316
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.169.01car
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Partially Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.169.01car
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/523418974
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY NC ND
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
In this chapter, I analyze a Russian pseudotranslation book series as translations from imagined originals. Drawing on Toury’s notion of assumed translation (2012) and Liu’s (2019) focus on the metatextual characteristics of pseudotranslation, I aim to: (1) classify the book series, (2) establish how this type of pseudotranslation differs from translations with regular source and target texts, and (3) discuss the benefits and consequences of perceiving pseudotranslations as translations from imagined originals. Firstly, based on an analysis of paratexts, I classify the book series as a hoax or a marketing strategy. Secondly, I argue that the notion of “imagined original” forces the reader to pay attention to the pitfalls and inherent ambiguity of pseudotranslation, while also drawing attention to issues related to imagology and ethics.
Keywords:
Imagology, pseudotranslation, source text, translation studies
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