SPECIFIC FEATURES OF TRANSLATING LITERARY TEXTS TOLD BY THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR (BASED ON “THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF A DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME” BY M. HADDON)

Abstract

The paper focuses on the peculiarities of literary translation of the texts where the story is told by an unreliable narrator. This relatively new way of narration has not been properly considered yet, as well as the criteria of an unreliable narrator and the translation strategy that should be chosen while translating such fiction. The paper discusses the features of this literary device, its functions and the ways of its linguistic representation. The paper is based on the novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by M. Haddon and its translation into Russian made by A. Kukley in 2003. The comparative analysis of the source and target texts focuses on the stylistic peculiarities of the novel and the language personality of the unreliable narrator. The paper reveals the following challenges that a translator can deal with: the formation of a speech profile of the narrator, the translation of colloquial vocabulary and the translation of realia. Each example that includes an extract from the original book and its translation shows the features of the narrator’s speech profile; these features can have an impact on the translation and thus, should be taken into consideration throughout the whole process of translating. The analysis touches upon the examples representing inadequate translation, and for this reason, an alternative variant, the most relevant one and conveying the idea of the author of the original book is provided. The authors make a conclusion about the best translation strategy to be used while dealing with literary texts told by an unreliable narrator.

Keywords

• literary translation
• unreliable narrator
• language personality
• speech profile
• colloquial vocabulary