This paper tries to provide a thorough analysis of Ivan Turgenev’s appropriation of King
Lear, the Shakespearean tragedy, as it appears in the novella King Lear of the Steppes (1870),
from the perspective of translation and adaptation studies, and how this was adapted to 19th
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century Russia. This analysis highlights the role of cross-cultural relations and its influence
on the evolution of target literatures. The comparison with Shakespeare’s source text shows
evident similarities but also differences, all of which raise multiple questions from the
perspective of philosophy, history and ideology, among others. In fact, the interpretation of
Shakespeare’s work, in Turgenev’s work and in the Russian literature as a whole, has become
essential to understand the intellectual development of this country since the 19th century, as
well as the rise of some debates about the Russian cultural identity, which still continue today.
By focusing on Turgenev’s novella King Lear of the Steppes, the relevance of processes such
as appropriation and adaptation for the development of national literatures will be
underscored and how these foster debate and discussion within cultural systems. And, in
order to illustrate this, it will also be highlighted that Shakespeare’s King Lear was in fact
based upon several previous medieval sources and suffered multiple changes and adaptations
over the centuries, which proves that knowledge transforms and adapts to the literary, cultural
and ideological features of each period of time and society
