Stylistic features of literary translation of works of modern American literature: an experimental study of students' perception

Abstract

This study is devoted to the analysis of stylistic features of the translation of modern American prose into Russian and their perception by the student audience. The purpose of the work is to identify key stylistic transformations in translation, determine their impact on the reader's reception and assess the adequacy of the transmission of the author's idea. The material consists of fragments from the works of D. Tartt, J. Franzen, G. Flynn and their translations made by leading Russian translators. The methodology includes comparative stylistic and translation studies analysis, psycholinguistic experiment (semantic scaling), statistical data processing. In the course of the research, the dominant stylistic techniques of the originals (metaphor, irony, inappropriate direct speech) and the ways of their transmission in translation are highlighted. It has been experimentally proved that the stylistic equivalence of a translation significantly affects the depth of perception of a text and the assessment of its artistic merits (r=0.78; p<0.01). The expediency of taking into account the addressee factor when choosing translation strategies is substantiated. The results obtained contribute to the theory of literary translation, receptive stylistics, and methods of teaching translation. The prospects for further study of the role of stylistic techniques in translation using psycholinguistic methods based on other languages and genres are outlined.