Retranslation as a Necessity for the 21st Century Reader. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T. S. Eliot

Retranslation has been thoroughly analysed in the past century, in terms of completion (Berman 1990), improvement (Robinson 1999), and personal understanding (Gambier 1994), especially in a social context undergoing major cultural changes. While it is somewhat difficult to define culture (Geertz 2014, Goodenough 1961 and 1999, Tylor 1871), we can try to outline the contemporary need for retranslation, need which stems from a change in the 2020/2021 reader's behaviour. One such example is T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. In this paper, I discuss two recent Romanian retranslations of this book, as well as their impact on a group of 50 Romanian university students whose English knowledge is at a B2-C1 level. This short study aims to provide a general layout of today's reading and retranslation landscape, starting from the premises offered by the two Romanian retranslations and by the students' preferences.