FEATURES OF V. PELEVIN’S IDIOSTYLE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF “GENERATION “P””

Sidash V.V., Kritskaya N.V.

DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2022-4-34-40

Information About Author:

Sidash V. V., undergradiate student, Tomsk State Pedagogical University (ul. Kiyevskaya, 60, Tomsk, Russian Federation, 634061). Kritskaya N. V., Candidate of Philological Scieces, Associate Professor, Tomsk State Pedagogical University (ul. Kiyevskaya 60, Tomsk, Russian Federation, 634061).

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

References:

1. Pelevin V. O. Generation “P”. Moscow, АSТ Publ., 2015. 352 p. (in Russian).

2. Pelevin V. O. Homo Zapiens. New York, Penguin Books, 1999. 132 p.

3. Yermolenko S. Ya. Оcherki slovesnosti [Essays on linguistics]. Krasnodar, Doveriye Publ., 1999. 304 p. (in Russian).

4. Kotyurova M. P. Idiostil’ [Idiostyle]. Stilisticheskiy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar’ russkogo yazyka [Stylistic encyclopedic dictionary of the Russian language]. Ed. M. N. Kozhina. Moscow, Flinta Publ., 2003. Pp. 95–99 (in Russian).

5. Kozhina M. N., Duskayeva L. R., Salimovskiy V. A. Stilistika russkogo yazyka [Stylistics of the Russian language]. Moscow, Flinta Publ., 2011. 464 p. (in Russian).

6. Vinogradov V. V. Problema avtorstva i teoriya stiley [The problem of authorship and theory of styles]. Moscow, Gosizdat Publ., 1961. 616 p. (in Russian).

7. Ledenyova V. V. Idiostil’ (k utochneniyu ponyatiya) [Idiostyle (to clarify the concept)]. Filologicheskiye nauki – Philology. Theory and Practice, 2001, no. 5, pp. 36–41 (in Russian).

8. Bolotnova N. S. Var’irovaniye idiostilya publichnoi yazykovoi lichnosti v mediatekstah raznyh zhanrov [Variation of idiostyle of linguistic personality in media texts of different genres]. Sibirskiy filologicheskiy zhurnal – Siberian Journal of Philology, 2015, no. 1, pp. 150–158 (in Russian).

9. Makeeva M. N. Ritorika khudozhestvennogo teksta i eyeo germenevticheskiye posledstviya [Rhetoric of the literary text and its hermeneutic consequences]. Tver, 2000. 329 p. (in Russian).

10. Luchinskaya E. N. Postmodernistskiy diskurs: semiologicheskiy i lingvokulturologicheskiy aspekty inetrpretatsii [The discourse of postmodernism: semiological and linguo-cultural aspects of interpretation]. Krasnodar, Kuban State University Publ., 2002. 158 p. (in Russian).

11. Galinskaya I. L. Postmodernizm v russkoy literature [Postmodernism in Russian literature]. Vestnik kul’turologii, 2001, no 2 (in Russian). URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/postmodernizm-v-russkoy-literature (accessed 11 April 2022).

12. Butler Ch. Postmodernism. A very short introduction. Oxford University Press, 2022. 140 p.

13. Zhuravlyov S. Postmodernizm v literature [Postmodernism in literature]. Proza.ru (in Russian). URL: http://www.proza.ru/2010/07/05/891 (accessed 21 April 2022).

14. Pavlovskaya О. Ye., Zimina N. Y. Spetsifika ornamental’nogo idiostilya posmodernizma (na primere romana V. Pelevina “Generation “P””) [Specifics of ornamental idiostyle of postmodernism (on the example of “Generation “P”” by V. Pelevin]. Vestnik Adygeyskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2: Filologiya i iskusstvovedeniye – The Bulletin of the Adyghe State University, Series Pedagogy and Psychology, 2012, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 215–218 (in Russian).

15. Vaishvilaine L. Translated by Andrew Bromfield. ExLibris, 29 May 2003 (in Russian). URL: https://www.ng.ru/kafedra/2003-05-29/3_bromfield.html (accessed 21 April 2022).

16. Nesterova N. M., Popova Yu. K. О spetsifike perevoda posmodernistkikh khudozhestvennykh tekstov (na materiale proizvedeniy A. Bayett i ikh perevodov na russkii yazyk [On specifics of translation of postmodernist fiction (on the example of A. Bayett’s prose in Russian translation)]. Philologicheskiye nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki. 2017, no. 1(67), vol. 2, pp. 151–157 (in Russian).

( 775.83 kB ) ( 762.85 kB )

Issue: 4, 2022

Series of issue: Issue 4

Rubric: COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS

Pages: 34 — 40

Downloads: 1474