Representation of Zadie Smith’s Individual Style in Original Text and Translation

Abstract

Author’s individual style and its preservation in translation are a relevant issue of translation practices. This research is the first attempt in domestic linguistics to study Zadie Smith’s individual style and its manifestation in translation based on M. Yu. Mukhin’s analysis model. The methodology involved the methods of semantic interpretation, comparative analysis, content analysis, quantitative calculations, and linguistic analysis based on the conceptual profile model. The study featured Z. Smith's novel On Beauty and its translation performed by O. Kachanova and A. Vlasova. The analysis revealed the most frequent linguistic and stylistic means and denotative spheres and classes, e.g., such lexical means as simile, interjection, metaphor, allusion, and lexical repetition; various phonographic means, e.g., capitalization, graphic imagery, excessive punctuation, and graphon used to portray a wide variety of accents, etc. The official Russian edition conveyed the actual meaning and the lexical speech portraits by an effective use of various translation transformations, e.g., word order, lexical substitution, compensation, etc. In most cases, literal translation proved to be appropriate as it preserved the metagraphemic of the original text. However, the graphic fixation of the characters’ speech not always found its reflection in the translation text.

Keywords

• author's individual characteristics
• individual style
• conceptual profile
• denotative spheres
• denotative classes
• linguistic and stylistic means
• artistic discourse