Abstract
Despite a long tradition of translating Shakespeare’s works into Russian, names as a stylistic device have been underestimated by scholars. The study deals with the space or environment of characteristic names (charactonyms) and its rendering into Russian in the works Henry IV, Part II and The Merry Wives of Windsor. The material for the research is a dozen translations into Russian done in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries including annotated editions which may show additional interpretations of the names. Comparing the puns based on names and their equivalents as a method shows how to identify overlapping approaches to translating stylistic devices involving charactonyms. The analysis of the translations reveals a variety of ways to render names, in particular within text, which is rare, and the application of commentaries in annotated editions. This research demonstrates that some equivalents of names have been repeated in several translations and hence the translators relied on the best practice instead of suggesting their own solutions. The research also shows the strategies and patterns employed by Russian translators and writers, which may be a good resource for literary translators.
Highlights
Despite a long tradition of translating Shakespeare’s works into Russian, names as a stylistic device have been underestimated by scholars
The paper will identify the key charactonyms from the historical playHenry IV, Part 2 and the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor as well as puns involving names, and expose those which are relevant to rendering into Russian and the equivalents suggested in several translations
As to the thesis of the paper on overlapping variants, the analysis has shown that the equivalents for charactonyms have been repeated in several translations: Плесень (Vengerova, Birukova), Тень (Vengerova, Kanshin, Ketcher, Kuzmin, Birukova); Бородавка (Vengerova, Ketcher, Kuzmin, Birukova); Слабняк (Vengerova, Kuzmin); Бычок (Vengerova, Kuzmin, Birukova); Силок (Vengerova, Kanshin); Коготь (Vengerova, Kanshin, Pasternak); Ночная Пташка (Birukova, Kuzmin)
Summary
Despite a long tradition of translating Shakespeare’s works into Russian, names as a stylistic device have been underestimated by scholars. The study deals with the space or environment of characteristic names (charactonyms) and its rendering into Russian in the works Henry IV, Part II and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Comparing the puns based on names and their equivalents as a method shows how to identify overlapping approaches to translating stylistic devices involving charactonyms. The paper will identify the key charactonyms from the historical playHenry IV, Part 2 (hereafter Henry IV) and the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor as well as puns involving names, and expose those which are relevant to rendering into Russian and the equivalents suggested in several translations. The author aims to show the most relevant names in Shakespeare to be rendered, the strategies provided by translators in several versions, and demonstrate the equivalents of charactonyms borrowed by translators. The attempt to examine the onymic space in the translation of the works by Shakespeare into Russian is being done for the first time
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