ON THE CULTURAL-AND-EDUCATIONAL FUNCTION OF ARTISTIC TRANSLATION

Abstract

Cultural exponents in a work of fiction can become obstacles to an adequate translation, which implies a similar reaction to the reading by both the reader of the original and the reader of the target text. It is possible to reproduce cultural specificity in translation, though not without losses. This is perhaps the most difficult part of literary translation. Traditionally the main ways of solving this problem are the strategies of foreignisation and domestication.Each of them has both advantages and disadvantages, and the translator has to make a choice between them. On what basis should this choice be made and what should be taken into account in the first place? The article seeks to answer these questions with a focus on the cultural background of the source text and on the example of Ukrainian translations of the first two books from A. Bradley’s series about Flavia de Luce.The purpose of the article is to show how the focus of the source text author on a certain type of reader (recipient of the work) determines a multi-vector set of background knowledge, the markers of which must be reproduced in the target text in order for the cultural-and-educational function of translation to be fully realised.It is argued that the undeniable connection between literature and culture results in the fact that a literary text captures the knowledge inherent in the author’s native country, and thus can serve as a source of information about “others” for the readers from other countries. This, in turn, results in the strengthening of the cultural-and-educational function of translation, which is complicated by the need not only to transfer the names of cultural exponents to the target text, but also to explicate the knowledge of the source culture embedded in them.When choosing a strategy, the translator must first determine how he or she understands the “super-task” of translation: informing or enlightening, entertaining or educating. The focus on the reader is also of great importance.In the target culture the reader needs to be prepared for the perception of “other” cultures, to be brought up. It is easier to do this when the knowledge that is common to humanity as a whole is presented. It is more difficult when it is totally national heritage. Here you have to use all possible compensatory techniques, including paratextual elements. Of course, one or two translated books cannot bring up such a reader. It has to be a long path of translation and systematic work on it in the country as a whole.