FEATURES OF V. PELEVIN’S IDIOSTYLE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF “GENERATION “P””
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2022-4-34-40
Introduction. Relevance of the research is determined by the interest of modern linguistics and translation science in search of effective ways of preserving author’s individual style in translation. Aim and objectives. The present paper attempts to discuss A. Bromfield’s ways and decisions to render the principal features of V. O. Pelevin’s individual style in “Generation P” postmodernist novel. Materials and methods. The research is based on two text sources: the Russian original text of “Generation “P”” by V. Pelevin and its English version “Homo Zapiens” (transl. A. Bromfield). The methods applied are general scientific (observation and description) and linguistic (text analysis, comparative analysis). Results and discussion. Rendering of author’s idiostyle features is one of the basic tasks of literary translation. Novel “Generation “P”” by V. Pelevin’s, marked by intertextuality and syncretism of style and narration characteristic of Russian postmodernist paradigm, strikes the reader with own specific eclecticism, word play, multi-layered picture of reality, plentiful quotations and allusiveness. The challenging attempt of Russian-English literary translation by British interpreter A. Bromfield, trying to restore V. Pelevin’s idiostyle principal features manifested in plexus of expressive means and stylistic devices, is discussed in the article. Conclusion. In authors’ view, some minor flaws in rendering of V. Pelevin’s idiostyle may be caused by incompleteness of comprehension of “Generation “P”” text, loaded by multifaceted linguistic affluence of style. The most sensitive omission for the author’s idiostyle is probably zero translation of English insertions as principal features of Pelevin’s bilingual narration, as well as the decision to neutralize some colloquialism.
Keywords: idiostyle, V. Pelevin, postmodernism, translation, foreign language insertions, allusions, colloquialism
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Issue: 4, 2022
Series of issue: Issue 4
Rubric: COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS
Pages: 34 — 40
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