Original’s content distortions as a component of the chosen translational strategy (with reference to contemporary English-written prose)

Introduction. Based upon seven American and English contemporary novels translated into Russian the paper deals with semantic deviations from the original deliberately inserted into the target text with the aim to distort its content. These translation strategy’s distinctive peculiarities revealed by the authors testify to their nonrandom typical regularity which makes their detailed analysis and classification increasingly urgent. The primary objectives of the research: to put forward a justified classification of the factual material proceeding from the specific type of the given content’s distortion; to suggest the authors’ own versions of translation that could have been used in rendering the original’s content. The research methodology: the random sample of the relevant factual material; the comparative analysis of parallel meaningful excerpts from the original and its translation; the contextual and interpretative method; the method of translational experiment i.e. the authors’ own translations of the analyzed textual units. Results. Taking into account the fact that the related theoretical literature lacks any substantiation of such intentional distortions, the authors have tried to take a completely new approach both to analyzing and systematizing the factual material proceeding from the concrete means resulting in the original’s distortion of the sort. The bulk of examples has been classified into six groups: complete and utter change of the original’s content; insertion of superfluous content to the target text; insertion of outdated clichés to the target text; insertion of widely known citations to the target text; deliberate and glaring omission of the original’s content in translation; the original’s pragmatic distortion by way of ‘‘correcting’’ seemingly drastic factual mistakes. Conclusion. The results obtained may prove helpful and useful both for translators of fiction and higher-school lecturers of the theory and practice of translation as well as a number of related linguistic disciplines

Source text · Target text · Language, Communication, and Linguistic Studies · Literature Analysis and Criticism · Translation Studies and Practices

• Translation Studies

  Mary Snell-Hornby•Translation studies•1988

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