Translator's Cognitive Style: “Modernization” vs. “Historization” of the Time-Remote Original Text (Case Study of Ukrainian Retranslations of W. Shakespeare’s Tragedies)

Abstract

Abstract. The article focuses on the cognitive style characteristics of Ukrainian poets-translators of Shakespeare's tragedies, formed in the XIX-XXI centuries under the influence of cultural and historical context and literary style of the epoch. The analysis of Shakespeare's “Hamlet” (1899) and its three time-remote Ukrainian retranslations made by P. Kulish (1899), L. Hrebinka (1939) and Yu. Andrukhovych (2000), revealed the influence of the translator's cognitive style on his choice of translation strategy – historicization / archaization (focus on the author of the original work, i.e. preservation of the culturally motivated mental image of the original in the translation) or modernization / domestication (orientation on the modern reader of the translation, i.e. adaptation of the original mental image to the cultural norms of the target audience).

The goal of the research is to demonstrate the dependence of the stylistic variability of different Ukrainian retranslations of time-remote original text on the translator's cognitive style, which determines his choice of translation strategy. The research methodology incorporates general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, observation and abstraction for substantiation the theoretical foundations; linguistic-stylistic, componential and comparative analysis to compare, on the one hand, time-remote original text with different Ukrainian retranslations, and on the other hand, different Ukrainian retranslations with each other to identify specific features of individual translation style.

Results of research. The socio-cultural context in which Shakespeare's tragedy “Hamlet” and its Ukrainian retranslations by P. Kulish, L. Hrebinka and Y. Andrukhovych were created, demonstrates fundamentally different historical epochs. On the one hand, there is the Elizabethan era in the history of Great Britain with its specific social stratification and hierarchy in society. On the other hand, three different cultural and historical periods in social development in Ukraine: 1) the last quarter of the ХІХ century (P. Kulish); 2) 1930s (L. Hrebinka); 3) the turn of the third millennium (Yu. Andrukhovych). Therefore, the cognitive style of the translators is determined by the historical, cultural context and literary style of the epoch. The study revealed differences in retranslations of the time-remote original text not only in style but also in their cognitive accuracy, as the choice of historicization / archaization or modernization / domestication translation strategy depends on the literary style of the epoch to which the translator belongs or aspires.