TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES IN PRESERVING THE AUTHOR’S IDIOSTYLE IN MEMOIR TRANSLATION (CASE STUDY ON BRI LEE’S EGGSHEL SKULL)

Abstract

The article explores the author’s idiostyle concept in the context of literary translation relying upon Bri Lee’s memoir Eggshell Skull text. The idiostyle is understood as the unique linguistic and stylistic «handwriting» of the author. It plays a crucial role in shaping the linguo-stylistic identity of literary texts. Preserving such idiostyle during translation turns out to be a complex task for the translator, requiring linguistic accuracy, cultural and stylistic sensitivity, etc. The research focuses on linguistic means for idiostyle realization used by Bri Lee, namely professional legal terminology, colloquial lexicon, vulgarisms, idioms, and proper names of various types. The article presents the analysis of the system of translation techniques applied to convey these elements in the Ukrainian version of the text. On examining the translation, the study detects nine actively used translation techniques relying on the classification developed by L. Molina and A. Hurtado Albir. Among the most frequent techniques, there are calque (most frequently used one), adaptation, established equivalent, borrowing, and amplification. The list of less frequently used techniques (given in descending order) includes description, transposition, discursive creation, and modulation. The findings of the research demonstrate that the translator gave priority for preserving the authenticity and expressive function of the source text, which is of special importance for memoirs characterized by a high degree of subjectivity and emotivity. It is detected that among the genre-specific features of memoir writing influencing the translator’s strategy, there is first-person narration and presence of autobiographical elements. The research sets the perspective of studying translation techniques aimed at preserving the author’s idiostyle in prose translation.