Translating Vasilij Šukšin’s literary dialogue into Swedish

Finland Swedish as an extra resource

Authors

• Olga Mezhevich University of Helsinki

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61200/mikael.129439

Keywords:

literary translation, translation of dialogue, colloquial markers, strategy of compensation

Abstract

This article discusses the use of colloquial markers by Vasilij Šukšin in dialogues in his fictional prose and translation of these markers into Swedish. The analysis represents a case study on translation of literary dialogue between Swedish and Russian and is based on the short story by Vasilij Šukšin Bessovestnye and its translation into Swedish by Ben Hellman. Colloquial markers in literary texts present a complicated task for the translator because there is often no equivalent in the target language, and, thus, the translator has to use strategies related to compensating possibilities offered by the target language. The analysis shows that Šukšin uses a wide range of colloquial markers on all language levels, which usually do not have an equivalent in Swedish. However, the translator uses the compensating possibilities of Swedish language by introducing many Swedish colloquial markers into the translation, including dialect markers as well as Finland Swedish colloquial markers as an extra resource. Though the Swedish text is more normative in comparison with the source text, the translator manages to transfer the effect of colloquialness into the Swedish text without the precise rendering of every colloquial marker used by Vasilij Šukšin.