Cognitive transformation of artistic images in Japanese translations of F. M. Dostoevsky: experience in digital analysis

Abstract

The phenomenon of "Dostoevsky and Japan" is the subject of active consideration by specialists in Dostoevsky studies all over the world. Translations of his works into Japanese continue to cause numerous discussions of translators and literary critics, both face-to-face and indirect. One of the central topics for discussion is the problem of the artistic image in the texts of F.M. Dostoevsky, which is usually considered using traditional methods of philological analysis while the linguistic study of literary texts is gaining attention in literary studies. The methods of corpus and computer linguistics reveal various trends, statistically significant patterns, etc., which is becoming more and more in demand in various areas of philological interest: in studying the dynamics of plot development, analyzing the rhythmic organization of texts, in studies of grammatical and lexical features of the writer's personal style and other areas. The use of digital humanities’ technologies in addition to the tasks associated with data processing makes it possible to formalize these tasks to state the texts’ problems in the language of algorithms. In this article the mechanisms of cognitive transformation of the image of Rodion Raskolnikov from the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment" will be studied using the methods of big data analysis. The current study was carried out on the material of the author's parallel corpus of Russian-Japanese translations, where the sentences containing propositional attitudes unusual for the Japanese language were selected: the elements of the influence of an inanimate subject on a person. This will help to trace how the Japanese language represents the confrontation between the Human and the external Force representing the inanimate world; to draw conclusions about the formation of typified linguistic experience in Japanese speakers’ mental space. Besides, the ways of cognitive transformation of artistic images of foreign literature in the Japanese representation will be considered.