Reception of literary works in the original and translation. A case study: Students’ responses

Abstract

The present case study applies the Reception Model of Literary Translation that places a high value on multiplicity and subjectivity of a target readership’s response to a source text. The article highlights a three-stage experiment that analyzes Literary Translation majors’ responses to Yuriy Vynnychuk’s novelTango of Deathin the original and in Michael M. Naydan and Olha Tytarenko’s translation. The data on the students’ response was collected by means of brainstorming sessions, in-class discussions, written reports, essays, and questionnaires. The informants agreed that on a large scale the translators succeeded in recreating the fusion of tragedy and humor of Vynnychuk’s writing. However, on a small scale, certain translation decisions initiated polemics. Thus, some students criticized the recurrent translators’ decision to alter the author’s syntax, which is one of Vynnychuk’s stylistic idiosyncrasies. Whereas others would fully approve of this technique, stating that otherwise the text would be incomprehensible for an English reader. Another stumbling block was associated with culturally biased units. Some students criticized the literality of conveying a number of Ukrainian set expressions, others saw in it a manifestation of a foreignization strategy. The students’ feedback prompted a conclusion about the experiment helping to build up the learners’ confidence in their professional expertise, boost their self-esteem and empathy, as well as to prepare them for actual translating projects of their own.