A Short Story “Bobok” by F M Dostoevsky Translated by b L Brazol: Genre Transformations
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2023-1-103-112
A short story “Bobok” by F.M. Dostoevsky is regarded to be one of the most complicated works of the writer not only from the point of the number of issues being discussed, but also in terms of genre identification. The scholars believe that it is possible to consider the story as an example of the synthesis of genres. The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of the reception of “Bobok” in the USA by identifying the genre shifts in the English translation of the story. The material of the study is a short story “Bobok” and its English translation made by Boris L. Brazol in 1949. The original and translated texts are analyzed within the philological approach including the bases of comparative analysis. Additionally, the study uses the findings of Russian and foreign Dostoevsky scholars, as well as the works on genre theory, reception theory, and fiction translation. Compared to the original text, the English version of “Bobok” demonstrates formal and issue-related transformations that are primarily induced by the peculiarities of the literature in the USA in the middle of the 20th century: emergence of black humor as one of the most adequate forms of creative writings in the context of cultural crisis. The translator focuses on conveying those story’s features that coincide with the key characteristics of black humor genre, i.e. satirico-humorous effect, borderline condition of character, overlapping of reality and unreality. The complex narrative structure is not preserved; there is no iconic linkage in conveying the words that constitute the logical gradation and are directly connected with the main issues of the story. The absence of the complex structure of the story in the translation, including the ignorance of iconic linkage in conveying the key concepts of the original, blurs out the genre diversity of “Bobok” and results in issue-related transformations. The complicated story “Bobok” is perceived in English version as a black humor writing, which in its turn identifies the stage of “passive saturation” of American culture with such texts followed by the stage of blossom (“active transmission”) of black humor poetics in 1950–70th.
Keywords: F. М. Dostoevsky, short story “Bobok”, translation interpretation, genre shifts
References:
1. Zhurnal’noye obozreniye [Journal review]. Delo, 1873, no. 12, pp. 100–121 (in Russian).
2. Mochulskiy K. V. F. M. Dostoyevskiy: zhizn’ i tvorchestvo [F. M. Dostoevsky: his life and work]. Paris, YMGA-Press Publ., 1980. 565 p. (in Russian).
3. Belyy A. Kritika. Estetika. Teoriya simvolizma: v 2 tomakh. Tom 1 [Critics. Esthetics. Theory of Symbolism: in 2 volumes. Vol. 1]. Moscow, Iskusstvo Publ., 1994. 480 p. (in Russian).
4. Dostoyevskiy F. M. Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy v 30 tomakh [Complete works in 30 volumes]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., Vol. 21. 1976. 552 p. (in Russian).
5. Bakhtin M. M. Problemy poetiki Dostoyevskogo [Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics]. Saint Petersburg, Azbuka Publ., 2019. 415 p. (in Russian).
6. Tikhomirov B. N. Dostoyevskiy i traktat E. Svedenborga “O nebesakh, o mire dukhov i ob ade” [Dostoevsky and Svedenborg’s book “Heaven and Hell”]. Neizvestnyy Dostoyevskiy. Elektronnyy nauchnyy zhurnal, 2016, no. 3, pp. 92–127 (in Russian). DOI 10.15393/j10.art.2016.2801
7. Lutskaya N. N. Fel’yeton v tvorchestve F. M. Dostoyevskogo. Dis. kand. filol. nauk [Feuilleton in Dostoevky’s writings. Diss. cand. philol. sci.]. Мoscow, 1982. 152 p. (in Russian).
8. Reva Е. К. Zhanr fel’yetona v tvorchestve F. M. Dostoyevskogo (poetika vnutrizhanrovykh svyazey). Dis. kand. filol. nauk [Genre of feuilleton in F. M. Dostoevsky’s creative writing. Diss. cand. philol. sci.]. Penza, 2009. 167 p. (in Russian).
9. Zakharov V. N. Sistema zhanrov Dostoyevskogo: tipologiya i poetika [Dostoevsky’s system of genres: typology and poetics]. Leningrad, Leningrad University Publ., 1985. 208 p. (in Russian).
10. Khmelevskiy A. S. Gotika v russkoy klassicheskoy proze [Gotic style in Russian classical prose]. Moscow, 2019. October (in Russian). URL: https://moskvam.ru/publications/publication_2221.html (accessed 30 July 2022).
11. Syskina A. A., Matveyenko I. A. The Gothic Tradition in Jane Eyre and The Woman in White in Russian Translations, 1849–1860. Gothic Studies, 2021, no. 23.3, pp. 263–279.
12. Kantor B. K. Kakiye sny prisnyatsya v smertnom sne, ili Zhizn’ v smerti [What death dreams can be seen, or life in death]. Voprosy filosofii, 2014, no. 5, pp. 65–72 (in Russian).
13. Milner-Gulland R. Chto proiskhodit v rasskaze “Bobok”? [What happens in a short story “Bobok”?]. Voprosy literatury, 2012, no. 4, pp. 293–312 (in Russian).
14. Serebryakov А. А., Sycheva Е. О. Rasskaz F. M. Dostoyevskogo “Bobok” v metatekste literatury [F. M. Dostoevsky’s story “Bobok” in metatext of literature]. Aktual’nyye problemy filologii i pedagogicheskoy lingvistiki – Current Issues in Philology and Pedagogical Linguistics, 2019, no. 4, pp. 187–193 (in Russian).
15. The World of Black Humor. N. Y., E. P. Dutton & Co., 1967. 350 р.
16. Weber B. The mode of “black humor”. The Comic Imagination in American Literature. New Brunswick, Rutgers Univ. Press, 1973. P. 36–371.
17. Lavrent’yev А. I. “Chernyy yumor” v amerikanskom romane 1950–70-kh gg. Dis. kand. filol. nauk [“Black humor” in American novel of 1950–70th. Diss. cand. philol. sci.]. Izhevsk, 2004. 169 p. (in Russian).
18. Bier J. The Rise and Fall of American Humor. N. Y., Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968. 506 p.
19. Mochul’skiy K. V. Gogol’. Solov’yov. Dostoyevskiy [Gogol. Soloviev. Dostoevsky]. Moscow, Respublika Publ., 1995. 606 p. (in Russian).
20. Dostoevsky F. M. The Diary of a writer. Translated and annotated by Boris Brasol. Salt Lake City, Peregrine Smith books, 1985. 1097 p.
21. Dostoyevskiy F. M. Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy v 30 tomakh [Complete works in 30 volumes]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 198. Vol. 29. Book 2. 376 p. (in Russian).
22. Lotman Yu. М. Semiosfera [Semiosphere]. Saint Petersburg, Iskusstvo-SPB Publ., 2004. 704 p. (in Russian).
( 729.79 kB ) 
( 716.02 kB )
Issue: 1, 2023
Series of issue: Issue 1
Rubric: LITERARY STUDIES
Pages: 103 — 112
Downloads: 969