Masha Karp
Native name
Мария Поэлевна Карп
Born(1956-09-03)3 September 1956
Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR
OccupationAuthor, Translator, Journalist
LanguageEnglish, Russian
Alma materHerzen University

Masha Karp is a political journalist and a scholar on the work of George Orwell. She is the author of two books about Orwell: his biography, in Russian (2017) and "George Orwell and Russia", in English (2023). She is also a translator of English and German literature into Russian, a literary critic and a former BBC editor.

Life

Masha Karp was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St Petersburg, Russia). Her father Poel Karp (Карп, Поэль Меерович) is a poet, literary translator, ballet critic and political writer. Masha was educated as a linguist in the Herzen University in Leningrad. She began publishing her translations of English and German poetry and prose into Russian in 1983. Her published translations include works of Virginia Woolf, Alice Munro, Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Jennings, Andreas Gryphius and Nikolaus Lenau.[1] She also translated George Orwell’s fable "Animal Farm" and its original preface "The Freedom of the Press".[2]

In 1991 she moved to London[3] to work first as a producer (1991-1997) and then as Russian Features editor (1997-2009) for the BBC World Service, making and commissioning programmes on cultural, political and social issues. She also took part in BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service radio output in English and in the live BBC World Television show Europe Direct.[4]

Since 2009 she has been a freelance journalist with a special interest in relations between Russia and the West. This was the main subject of her articles published in the national press (Standpoint, The Independent, The Spectator, Open Democracy, etc.) and on the website of the UK NGO Rights in Russia, of which she has been a trustee since its foundation in 2010.

George Orwell’s life and work and its relevance to Russia has always remained in the centre of Masha’s attention. Her biography of Orwell, the first scholarly biography of the writer to be published in Russia, was a finalist of the ABS Literary Prize.[5][6] She is a member of the board of The Orwell Society and the editor of the OS Journal.[7][8]

In 2023 Karp published "George Orwell and Russia",[9] which received wide critical acclaim.[10][11] [12] [13] [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] It was positively reviewed inter alia by The Times Literary Supplement,[22] Forbes,[23] and The Boston Globe.[24] The book attracted attention of veteran diplomat Rodric Braithwaite, who served for a short time as British Ambassador in Moscow during the fall of the USSR, he found the author's analysis unconvincing.[25] On the other hand, another diplomat, the permanent representative of Canada in the UN Bob Rae called the book "brilliant".[26]

Masha Karp is the Chair of the Pushkin Club and a trustee of "Rights in Russia" [27] in Britain, while in Russia she is a member of St. Petersburg Writers' Union and the Literary Translators' Guild.

Masha Karp was awarded a prize of Innostrannaya literatura magazine (1991) for her translation of Virginia Woolf and also Popov Prize (2001) for her radio feature "In Defence of Freedom".[28][29]

Books

  • Masha Karp (2023). George Orwell and Russia (1st ed.). United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 312. ISBN 9781788317139.
  • Masha Karp (2017). George Orwell, Biography (in Russian) (1st ed.). Saint Petersburg: ru:Вита Нова. p. 608. ISBN 978-5-93898-642-8.

Videos

References

  1. ↑ "George Orwell and Russia with Masha Karp". Keats Community Library. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
  2. ↑ Мария Карп (Masha Karp) [in Russian] (1991). Skotskoe khozyaystvo. SPb: Azbuka-Klassika. Vsemirnoe slovo. p. 608. ISBN 978-5-93898-642-8.
  3. ↑ Meyers, Jeffrey (2023-08-27). "Orwell and Russia". The ARticle. Retrieved 2023-08-31. The author, Masha Karp, was born and educated in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and moved to London in 1991
  4. ↑ "Books By Masha Karp". Amazon. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  5. ↑ "Биограф писателя Джорджа Оруэлла Мария Карп получает премию Аркадия и Бориса Стругацких на XX церемонии в Пулковской астрономической обсерватории". Archived from the original on 2018-11-29. Retrieved 2018-11-25.
  6. ↑ "Masha Karp bio". Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
  7. ↑ Masha Karp. "The Orwell Society Journal". The Orwell Society. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  8. ↑ Karp, Masha (5 February 2022). "Found and Lost". The Orwell Society. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
  9. ↑ "George Orwell and Russia". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
  10. ↑ Boynton, Owen (2023-05-12). "Between socialist promise and totalitarian threat Owen Boynton reviews Masha Karp's George Orwell and Russia". Meduza. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
  11. ↑ Butt, Usman (2023-07-11). "George Orwell and Russia". Middle East Monitor. Europe & Russia, Review - Books, Reviews, Russia. Retrieved 2023-07-12. George Orwell and Russia makes for fascinating reading. Karp's exploration of the past, with an eye on the present, enables her to uncover the roots of George Orwell's enduring relevance.
  12. ↑ Popoff, Alexandra (2023-06-23). "'George Orwell and Russia' Review: The Origin of 'War Is Peace'". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2023-07-17. Ms. Karp's close reading of Orwell is important and timely
  13. ↑ Hugh, Barnes (2023-08-10). "Masha Karp: George Orwell and Russia review - dystopia's reality". The Arts Desk. The Arts Desk Ltd. Retrieved 2023-08-13. It's a timely and well-researched account of the origins of newspeak.
  14. ↑ Cherfas, Teresa (2023-08-09). "Teresa Cherfas reviews 'Orwell and Russia' by Masha Karp". Rights in Russia. Retrieved 2023-08-18. Throughout "Orwell and Russia", the author excels at pinpointing the crossovers between Orwell's lived experience, Soviet history and her own deep understanding of the Soviet system
  15. ↑ Meyers, Jeffrey (2023-08-27). "Orwell and Russia". The Article. Retrieved 2023-08-31. Karp has done extensive archival research and discovered valuable information from sources in Moscow
  16. ↑ Meilaender, Peter C. (2023-09-09). "George Orwell's Diagnosis of Modern Russia". The Dispatch. Retrieved 2023-09-10. Masha Karp's 'George Orwell and Russia' explores the country's pathologies through the novelist's eyes
  17. ↑ McGlone, Peggy (2023-06-23). "Book Report: What NYU Librarians Are Reading This Summer". NY University. NYU. Retrieved 2023-07-04. Alla Roylance, librarian for Slavic and Eastern European Studies; Linguistics, recommends George Orwell and Russia by Masha Karp (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023)
  18. ↑ Bateman, Ron (2023-07-15). "A Solzhenitsyn without a Gulag. George Orwell and Russia: 2+2=5 by Masha Karp". The Orwell Society. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
  19. ↑ Harding, Luke (2023-09-11). "Orwell's warning of totalitarianism for today". neweasterneurope.eu. Books and Reviews Issue 5 2023 Magazine. Retrieved 2023-09-12. Karp's book is fascinating, well-written, timely and original: a necessary reappraisal of what Orwell's work meant, and its relevance today
  20. ↑ Rossi, John P.; Rodden, John (2023-10-17). "How Did George Orwell Know?". Acton Institute. Retrieved 2023-10-18. Clearly written and straightforwardly presented, George Orwell and Russia will thus appeal not only to the general reader but also to scholars interested in expert treatment of this significant dimension of the work and reception of George Orwell, arguably the most important literary figure of modern times
  21. ↑ Seaton, Jean (2023-12-27). "Orwell revisited once again". The political quarterly. Wiley Online library. Retrieved 2024-01-03. Karp's scholarly understanding of Russia and Orwell make the book a treasure trove of new insights and Karp's personal engagement with it, adds a fresh dimension to how we see Orwell and to the dilemmas of decent Russians who are now, yet again, in exile from their own country
  22. ↑ Hunt, Eileen M. (2023-08-11). "The road to 1984. The evolution of Orwell's political views and his treatment of women". TLS. News UK. Retrieved 2023-08-10. Karp's gripping new book, roots Orwell's dystopian literature and political commentary of the 1940s in his critical engagement with the totalitarian and fascist politics of the Soviet Union from the early 1930s
  23. ↑ Anderson, Stuart (2023-09-27). "1984 And George Orwell Live Again In Putin's Russia". Forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 2023-09-27. A timely book by Masha Karp, a former Russian Features editor for the BBC World Service, shines a light on an unexplored topic—George Orwell and Russia. Government oppression, official gaslighting and fabricating history did not die with Orwell's model for 1984, the Soviet Union. Russian leader Vladimir Putin retooled these practices for the 21st century.
  24. ↑ Valles, Alissa (2023-10-02). "1984 was meant as a critique of the USSR, but it really fits Putin's Russia". www.bostonglobe.com/. John W. Henry. Retrieved 2023-10-02. Karp is eloquent on how the Kremlin uses implausible lies to express contempt for the West while it winks at Russians and yet spreads uncertainty about the reliability of any information.
  25. ↑ Braithwaite, Rodric. "'George Orwell and Russia' by Masha Karp review". History Today. Retrieved 2023-08-22. The suggestion that Russia has become an Orwellian tyranny is an inadequate explanation as to why the country finds itself in its present situation
  26. ↑ Rae, Bob (2023-09-08). "Letter from the United Nations: Fighting the Good Fight". Policy Magazine. Retrieved 2023-09-09. At the end of her brilliant book George Orwell and Russia, Masha Karp quotes from Orwell's late essay Looking Back on the Spanish War.
  27. ↑ "Masha Karp". Rights in Russia. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
  28. ↑ Мария Карп (Masha Karp) [in Russian] (2017). Джордж Оруэлл. Биография (George Orwell, Biography). SPb: ru:Вита Нова. p. 608. ISBN 978-5-93898-642-8.
  29. ↑ "Masha Karp obtains Popov' prize". BBC. 7 May 2001. Archived from the original on 2018-05-25. Retrieved 2018-11-11.
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