"The Seagull" by A. P. Chekhov in English translations (1909-2019): the experience of comparison

Abstract

This article is devoted to the consideration of the main translations of A. P. Chekhov's play "The Seagull" into English. The purpose of the work is to identify the key translation trends in the transmission of the above–mentioned work, depending on the year of its creation. The theoretical basis of this study was the works devoted to the theory of translation by domestic and foreign researchers (such as Alekseeva, 2004; Vinogradov, 2001; Vlakhov, Florin, 1986; Nelyubin, Khukhuni, 2008; Proshina, 2019; Fedorov, 1983; De Waard, Nida, 1986; Nida, Taber, 1982; Savory, 1968). The research material was the original of A. P. Chekhov's play "The Seagull" and twelve of its translations into English, published in the period from 1909 to 2019 in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The following methods were used in this study: comparative method, descriptive method, component analysis method. Thus, based on our research, we come to the conclusion that translations of A. P. Chekhov's play "The Seagull" into English can be divided into actual translations of the literary text, preserving the semantic content, and interpretative variants, the purpose of which is adaptation not only linguistic, but also cultural, for the viewer, at all unfamiliar with the original source. Russian authors, who are native speakers of the Russian language, but are guided by a different, to varying degrees alien, cultural orientation, are characterized by excessive domestication and attempts to bring the translation of a work closer to the realities of another culture, not so much by English-speaking translators, who nevertheless tried to convey the author's style of A. P. Chekhov and explain certain realities to a foreign reader.