TITLES OF WILDE’s PROSE FICTION: TRANSLATIONS INTO RUSSIAN, POETICS, TYPOLOGY

Abstract

The article examines the titles of prose fiction of the English esthete Oscar Wilde in terms of their formal and content features, the quality of translation into Russian and typological characteristics. Particular attention is paid to the title of Wilde's only novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”: to the choice of words, rhythm and semantics associated with the author's aesthetic position. The titles of plays by Wilde the playwright follow the English literary tradition and quite often specify the genre, as well as focus on the name, gender, and social status of the main character. Titles of stories and fairy tales have similar characteristics. Approximately one third of all the considered titles are eponymous or literal, the second third are eponymous with an additional attributive characteristic, sometimes with ironic overtones at the level of the poetics of the title, the third part are titles in the possessive form, enhancing the nominative function. Translations of titles into Russian over a century of existence and renewal have come as close as possible to the original, maintaining its simplicity and richness.