The challenges of translating culturally specific elements: the case of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7968.2016v36n3p140Abstract
Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita, a highly
complex and multi-levelled narrative, is a challenge for any translator. The
emphasis in the current research is on the translation strategies used when
translating culturally-specific elements, or historical realia, referred to as
“Sovietisms,” in three English translations of the novel by Glenny (1967),
Pevear and Volokhonsky (1997) and Aplin (2008). Sovietisms refer to
items characteristic of the Soviet discourse of the 1930s: word-formations
of the non-standard “Soviet Russian.” Bulgakov’s language is sated with
Soviet vocabulary, which refers to various cultural and socio-political
elements of Soviet reality. Sovietisms occur at various levels (lexical,
syntactic, stylistic and rhetorical) and should be carefully translated as a
significant characteristic of Bulgakov’s style. A complete domestication
of Sovietisms may lead to a loss of a connotative meaning essential for
understanding the context, while a foreignisation of these terms, which are
most likely unknown to western readers, may disturb fluidity of reading
and cause confusion. The purpose of this analysis, thus, is to illustrate
the use of domesticating/foreignising strategies employed by Bulgakov’s
translators and to assess the translation choices. The comparative analysis
employs the taxonomies suggested by Vlakhov and Florin (1995) and
Vinay and Darbelnet (1958/1989) as the grounds for the case study.
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