Syntax in experimental literature: a literary linguistic investigation

This dissertation uses the methods of literary linguistics to investigate experimental uses of literary language. I consider what kinds of formal experimentation are possible with natural language, examine how the unusual forms of experimental literature are interpreted, and ask what these kinds of experimentation show us about the nature of language. To begin with, I will discuss the goals of this study in detail, outlining the theoretical basis for a linguistic study of experimental literature and what may be learned from such a study. Literary linguistics is concerned with understanding how literary texts use language, focusing on formal aspects of literary texts and how they are related to the formal features of language. Language is the medium of literary texts, and the formal aspects of these texts - such as metre or genre - are in part enabled by using this medium. To understand regularities in the formal aspects of literary texts, literary linguistics research explores regularities in linguistic form and the ways in which the literary form exploits linguistic form

From Theory to Practice in the Translation of Emiliya Dvoryanova’s Novel Concerto for a Sentence

In the first part of my thesis, I use a theoretical model proposed by Antoine Berman in the 1980s to elicit the difficult points in the translation of Emiliya Dvoryanova’s text with special attention to the practices of foreignization. Berman’s theory proposes a twelve-point classification of the deformation tendencies—forces that prevent translation from transporting the foreign elements in the target text. I choose four of the deformation tendencies from Berman’s list to analyze my translation of Concerto for a Sentence with the goal to creatively enforce foreignization practices. Then, I delve into the theoretical discussion regarding the translator and his/her choices of a text and the consequences in the receiving culture. I conclude that the positionality of the translator is a complex issue dependent on several variables: the dominant ideology in the receiving culture, its capacity to tolerate dissident voices, and the relationship between the two cultures—that of the text’s origin and the target culture. Next, I analyze the case of Dvoryanova’s novel Concerto for a Sentence: the possibilities for foreignization practices in its translation together with my positionality as a translator. In the end, I provide a sample from my translation of the novel