Retranslation within the evolution of translators’ reception of the original: culturological and ethical aspects

Notion of retranslation and factors that stimulate it are viewed in the article. The major factors include the evolution of translation norms, which contributes to the accumulation of traditions in literature, culture and translational experience, competitiveness of translators, and a conformity factor. Together with the established factors, the connection between the aspiration of translators to avoid reduplications and plagiarism and the tendency to change the translation strategy from domesticating to foreignizing is indicated. The controversial Retranslation Hypothesis of a French translator Antoine Berman is positively visualized through the material of a comparative and contrastive analysis of onyms reconstruction in translations. The results of the comparison of English toponyms and anthroponyms and their Russian equivalents, presented in different translations, are given. It is shown that foreign cultural markers are transformed in one of the earliest translations in accordance with the “domestic” literary canons, while in the later translation there is a dualism of translation strategies, and the translation created within the context of the changed socio-cultural conditions, as compared to its predecessors, is more focused on the spirit and culture of the original and the preservation of the true color of the epic novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. The results of the study suggest that the evolution of the translatological reception of the original takes place in the context of a shift in the translation strategy from domestication to foreigniza-tion and contributes to the enrichment of cultural, historical and translational traditions.