Филологические науки/ 3.Теоретические и методологические проблемы исследования языка.

PhD in Philology, Karpukhina V.N.

Altai State University, Russia

The Language of Children’s Literature in the Society Institutionalization

The article considers children’s literature functioning in the process of forming the contemporary society values. We deal with the source texts of English children’s fiction and their different translations into Russian. The subject analyzed is the influence of the translated children’s fiction language onto the stylistic and cultural preferences in some periods of Russian society development. The existential paradox of children’s literature translated into Russian in the 20^th century was that its translators were almost always the most gifted and ingenious Russian prosaics and poets who used children’s literature sphere as a shelter from ideology patterns [3]. In this sphere there worked almost the best from the best (K. Chukovskiy, S. Marshak, N. Daruzes, B. Zakhoder, N. Demurova, etc.). But Russian children’s literature was all the time the mass literature in the best sense of the word. Nowadays in some contemporary works children’s literature is appreciated at the same rate with the so called “soft cover” books of mass literature like detective stories, female prose, science fiction, fantasy, etc. The evaluation of such “low-leveled” texts may be negative [1; 2]. Although in some contemporary studies there appeared a raise of interest in children’s fiction [4; 5; 6]. The paradox of high quality in the Russian children’s literature translation and the evaluation of it as not highly important in the process of the society institutionalization should be a problem under consideration.

Children’s fiction has been the subject of special attention in European and American linguistics and literary studies for a long time. In Russian forming research tradition it’s possible to notice some works taking children’s literature out of the context of mass literature. We consider children’s fiction (the translated texts to be included) to influence the development of the cultural values system which emerges in the public conscience. Close to it are the ideas of R.R. Johnston: “Books for children have been organized around conventions designed to “teach” and “socialize” and “acculturate”, in earlier times with respect to religious and moral concerns, in later times as a more general education, and most recently in connection with specific social issues. …Especially during the final years of the old millennium, these issues included the environment, indigenous cultures, multiculturalism, the changing shape of families, and gender and gender roles” [5, s. 52-53]. The emergence of the article in principles and aims of children’s literature translation in the “International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature” [4, s. 519-529] shows the contemporary try to appreciate texts of such kind in the process of values institutionalization in the Western society.

The ethic and language standards of a society are not only “reflected” in the children’s fiction texts. These texts are often forming the trends in the development and fixing of future cultural standards of a society. The grammar form of the Plural for the 2^nd person Singular of personal pronouns in the Russian language is called “the Plural of Politeness”. In the cognitive situation of talking to a stranger the choice of this form (Вы ‘You’) is obligatory in Russian. In contemporary English this opposition (Вы – ты ‘You – you’) is neutralized. The form You is not used very often, mostly in possessive pronouns referring to people having not only high, but the highest social and communicative status (e.g. Your Majesty). The translators of English children’s fiction into Russian mostly evade this “opposition of politeness”, too. It is effectively played on in the translation into Russian of L. Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” made by B. Zakhoder. Alice, like a very polite British girl, addresses to all the other creatures using Вы ‘You’ (although in the text the pronoun goes like вы, without capitalizing the first letter). Vice versa, all the creatures address to her using ты ‘you’, like a grown-up addresses to a child. But this text of children’s literature translated from English into Russian is rather an exception, because the translator tries to keep to the old Russian tradition of constant usage of the “Polite Plural Pronoun” form.

The changes in the standard of politeness, the leveling of communication participants in the social and communicative status lead to the considerable change of the translation language standard. In the most part of children’s fiction translated into Russian the characters do not address to each other using Вы ‘You’, even if the source texts were written in the early 1900s and, ideally, should be kept to the communication standards of that time. It’s quite difficult to imagine from the point of contemporary etiquette Christopher Robin speaking to his father-storyteller using Вы ‘You’, or Peter Pan addressing to Wendy or captain Hook in the same way. When following the standards of the early 1900s communication etiquette, even the friends of Winnie-the-Pooh in Russian translation should speak to each other using Вы ‘You’. The nowadays experiment of V. Veber, who translated the stories of A.A. Milne into Russian in the 2000s, looks quite inadequate. Winnie-the-Pooh addresses to Owl using Вы ‘You’ in his translation, and it’s rather an allusion to the visual image of the Owl as an old dame coming from the Soviet cartoon made by F. Khitruk than the correct translator’s decision.

Otherwise, the evolution of language forms, largely connected to the public conscience changes, may be foreseen by translators in their linguistic work. Appeared in the 1990s, the postmodern translation of “Winnie-the-Pooh” by V. Rudnev anticipated the deep changes of the Russian language stylistic standards which can be easily grasped in any Russian contemporary text (especially in mass-media and scientific texts, not only translated children’s literature). The analytical translation theory, made by Rudnev and embodied into the translation of A.A. Milne stories, has failed from the communication point of view in the target audience equivalent to the audience of the source text. Rudnev fills his target text of “Winnie-the-Pooh” with speech fragments in English (either transcribed or transposed without changes and translation), keeps to the English syntax constructions, especially standard word order, saves English punctuation, etc. All these strategies, although, make the target text interesting for the different recipients. This new audience is the audience of linguists, philosophers, semiotics researchers, etc. The main aim of the translation by Rudnev was reached, because his new translation of “Winnie-the-Pooh” aimed to broaden the interpretation potential of children’s classical books traditionally translated into Russian. The texts of new translations into Russian of J. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, C. Lewis books, appearing now in the Internet, show the stylistic shift in the Russian language which was pointed out in a parody way in the translations made by V. Rudnev.

Language creolization, hybriding of different languages grammar forms, global usage of English (which turns to be some “postmodern Latin”), the changes in the speech etiquette standard are shown now in the language of mass-media and children’s literature, in the first place. It influences, in its turn, the changes of the values system in the contemporary society. Globalization and some cosmopolitism, inherent for the translators in their activity, were appreciated negatively some time before, but now they can be evaluated as the leading trends in the language which determine the contemporary society development.

References:

1. Chernyak M.A. Massovaya literatura XX veka : Uchebnoe posobie. – M. : Flinta : Nauka, 2007. – 432 s.

2. Clark B.L. Fairy Godmothers or Wicked Stepmothers? The Uneasy Relationship of Feminist Theory and Children’s Criticism // Children’s Literature : Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies/ Ed. by P. Hunt. – Vol. 3 : Cultural Contexts. – London, New York : Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2006. – P. 236-247.

3. Gordin Y. Grazhdanin kul’tury // Rossiya i Zapad : Sbornik statey. – M. : Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2011. – S. 5-9.

4. International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature/ Ed. by P. Hunt. – London ; New York : Routledge, 1996. – 923 p.

5. Johnston R.R. Childhood : A Narrative Chronotope// Children’s Literature : Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies/ Ed. by P. Hunt. – Vol. 3 : Cultural Contexts. – London, New York : Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2006. – P. 46-68.

6. Kovtun E.N. Khudozhestvennyi vymysel v literature XX veka : Uchebnoe posobie. – M. : Vysshaya shkola, 2008. – 406 s.