Functions of Words Denoting Cultural Realia in Pelevin’s “Prince of Gosplan” and its English Translation

Abstract

The article presents the results of the research made as a part of the project describing cultural realia in Victor Pelevin’s works and preparing the special structured commentary to his texts. English translations of Pelevin’s short stories and novels are used as a representative background in the research of textual functions of realia. In the novel “Prince of Gosplan” the realia of late Soviet epoch make a bizarre mixture with the elements of virtual reality in a variety of game worlds where the heroes of the text exist. The sphere of the games, as well as the sphere of the Soviet life, has a number of distinct temporal features. The realia incorporated in the text by the author perform a number of important functions: they create the atmosphere of the late Soviet epoch, constitute the time movement in the novel, introduce intertextual allusions, perform at the philosophical and mythological level of the text. The only existing English translation of the novel does not present all these functions. The article includes the classification of the realia, description of their functions, advice to future translators.