Page 30 - Translation Journal July 2015
P. 30
general. Since Aristotle, many researchers have attempted to uncover the types of plots, e.g., the K. Jung’s archetypes, the V.
Propp’s elements of a fairy tale story frames, 4 universal plots by Jorge Luis Borges (Besieged City, Return, Search, God’sSuicide).
An English poet and mythologist Robert Graves suggested seven basic plots – Cinderella, Achilles, Faust, Tristan, Circe, Romeo and
Juliet, Orpheus; Christopher Booker suggested seven universal plots (From Rags to Riches, Adventure, Return, Comedy, Tragedy,
Resurrection, Victory over the Monster ), and Georges Polti suggested 36 universal plots (Supplication, Salvation, Revenge For Crime,
Revenge for Loved, Pursued, Sudden Disaster, Sacrifice, Rout, Bold Attempt , Abduction, Riddle , Achievement, Hate to Loved, Rivalry
Between Relatives, Adultery and Murder, Madness, Fatal Indiscretion, Love Crime From Ignorance, Loved Murder from Ignorance, Self-
sacrifice for Sake of Ideal, Self-sacrifice for Sake of Loved Ones, Sacrifice for Sake of Passion, Loved Sacrifice for Sake of Necessity,
Unequal Rivalry, Adultery, Love Crime, Loved Dishonour Disclosure, Love Impediment, Love of Enemies, Ambition and Lust for Power,
Struggle with God, Unconscious Jealousy / Envy, Miscarriage, Remorse, Lost and Found , Loss of Loved).
Generally speaking, virtually in every film one can see something “former” – the character or story, inspired by real events in politics
(e.g., films about political elections, about Watergate), economics (e.g., films about the economic crisis), sports (e.g., biopics about
athletes), culture (e.g., the history of works of art), etc. However, the actual situation, its description using means, e.g., of artistic
expression in literature and its description by means of cinematic language – the essence of the phenomenon, the comparison of which
may not always be on a simple reason – a reflection of the fact and the linearity of the relationship. It’s not quite acceptable basis for
comparison of the literary source and its film adaptation. Relationship of sequels and remakes also cannot be considered simply linear.
Cinema belongs to the objects of research, which can be studied both from different positions (sciences) and different points of
reference: from the standpoint of structuralism, semiotics, psychoanalysis and behaviourism, theories of gender, feminism and
queer. Moreover, the cinema places greater emphasis on philosophy, history, culture, aesthetics, ethics, and even the environment.
Nevertheless, the modern Russian and Latvian linguistics, cognitive linguistics and the theory and practice of translation system did not
pay attention to the object in question in the article: one can mention only some of the individual and fragmentary works in the matter
of question that interests us.
Modern theory and practice of translation unevenly distributes its attention: a large, if not dominant role, plays the literary translation
studies, and applied areas are less developed, including the theory and practice of translating feature films. Relevance of this study lies
in the fact that this work begins to fill both theoretical and practical gap in the literature and cinematic texts and tactics of translation
and suggests the classification of adaptation communication strategy, which, in turn, is the novelty of the research.
This study focuses on the comparative analysis of the titles of feature films produced in the USA and their translation into Latvian
and Russian languages, and served as the main method of comparative study was the cognitive discourse analysis, which includes
elements of the component analysis, stylistic and other calculations, and, of course, introspection. The main objective of the study is
to analyse the titles of feature films (produced in the USA in 1991-2010) and their translation into Latvian and Russian languages to
establish implementation of adaptation communication strategy – the systems of communication strategies and communication moves
implementing them. Results of the analysis reflected in my monographic study “Cinematic Text and Translation” (published by Lambert,
2014). The comparative analysis involved 312 titles of adaptations, including 27 absolute precedent titles, 91 full precedent titles, 37
inverse precedent titles and 157 potential precedent titles; b) genre adaptation (250 titles and their translations; c) story adaptation (269
titles and their translations).
The initial sampling of feature film titles as well as their genre markers was based on films made in English (imdb.com), and then using
the database of titles in the Latvian language (ifdb.lv), we left those film titles that have translation into Latvian, and then sampled
translated titles in the database of films in the Russian language (kinopoisk.ru).
It should be stated that imdb.com has a section with materials dedicated to translations of film titles in many languages, but it would
not be feasible to take it as the basis as it is not quite fully represents materials for two target languages under review (and not just
for them): cf., 625 original titles of feature films between 1991-2000 have 135 Russian translations, 78 Estonian, 14 Lithuanian and
only 5 Latvian; and 1125 original film titles between 2001-2010 have 365 Russian, 307 Estonian, 124 Lithuanian and only 46 Latvian
translations.
A) Film adaptation
Most often precedent relations arise between the literary and cinematic text and the implementation of these relations is the film
adaptation. In general, researchers G.G. Slyshkin and M.A. Yefremova gave the film adaptation definition: “Adaptation is a translation
of the artwork from the language of art into screen verbal language” [1: 28p.]. However, the concept of verbal artwork is wide –
novels, short stories, plays, and poetry, comics, libretto, especially necessary to note works of a different kind, e.g., computer games.
In addition, the latest time foregrounds the issue of journalistic texts, because films are not cinematised only based on articles in
journalism, but also on blogs, therefore it is already implemented a broader definition: film adaptation is (virtualised) interpretation of
works of art and other types of communication by means of cinema.
Close relationship of the literary and cinematic texts provides a kind of feedback – books, representing retelling, literary record or record
of popular movie or TV series dialogues have sprung into popularity: this phenomenon opposite to adaptation is called novelisation.
To evaluate the translation, it is not enough to use the types of adaptations (literal film adaptation, after film adaptation; freestyle film
adaptation). Adaptations, their titles and translations can be considered from the standpoint of degree of precedent. In this aspect, the
translation becomes the exponent of precedent – the higher the precedent, the closer translation conveys the title of a literary work.
Thus, the first group includes works of literature known so that there is no need to call the author, era or otherwise explanation (typical
30 | Translation Journal - July 2015
Propp’s elements of a fairy tale story frames, 4 universal plots by Jorge Luis Borges (Besieged City, Return, Search, God’sSuicide).
An English poet and mythologist Robert Graves suggested seven basic plots – Cinderella, Achilles, Faust, Tristan, Circe, Romeo and
Juliet, Orpheus; Christopher Booker suggested seven universal plots (From Rags to Riches, Adventure, Return, Comedy, Tragedy,
Resurrection, Victory over the Monster ), and Georges Polti suggested 36 universal plots (Supplication, Salvation, Revenge For Crime,
Revenge for Loved, Pursued, Sudden Disaster, Sacrifice, Rout, Bold Attempt , Abduction, Riddle , Achievement, Hate to Loved, Rivalry
Between Relatives, Adultery and Murder, Madness, Fatal Indiscretion, Love Crime From Ignorance, Loved Murder from Ignorance, Self-
sacrifice for Sake of Ideal, Self-sacrifice for Sake of Loved Ones, Sacrifice for Sake of Passion, Loved Sacrifice for Sake of Necessity,
Unequal Rivalry, Adultery, Love Crime, Loved Dishonour Disclosure, Love Impediment, Love of Enemies, Ambition and Lust for Power,
Struggle with God, Unconscious Jealousy / Envy, Miscarriage, Remorse, Lost and Found , Loss of Loved).
Generally speaking, virtually in every film one can see something “former” – the character or story, inspired by real events in politics
(e.g., films about political elections, about Watergate), economics (e.g., films about the economic crisis), sports (e.g., biopics about
athletes), culture (e.g., the history of works of art), etc. However, the actual situation, its description using means, e.g., of artistic
expression in literature and its description by means of cinematic language – the essence of the phenomenon, the comparison of which
may not always be on a simple reason – a reflection of the fact and the linearity of the relationship. It’s not quite acceptable basis for
comparison of the literary source and its film adaptation. Relationship of sequels and remakes also cannot be considered simply linear.
Cinema belongs to the objects of research, which can be studied both from different positions (sciences) and different points of
reference: from the standpoint of structuralism, semiotics, psychoanalysis and behaviourism, theories of gender, feminism and
queer. Moreover, the cinema places greater emphasis on philosophy, history, culture, aesthetics, ethics, and even the environment.
Nevertheless, the modern Russian and Latvian linguistics, cognitive linguistics and the theory and practice of translation system did not
pay attention to the object in question in the article: one can mention only some of the individual and fragmentary works in the matter
of question that interests us.
Modern theory and practice of translation unevenly distributes its attention: a large, if not dominant role, plays the literary translation
studies, and applied areas are less developed, including the theory and practice of translating feature films. Relevance of this study lies
in the fact that this work begins to fill both theoretical and practical gap in the literature and cinematic texts and tactics of translation
and suggests the classification of adaptation communication strategy, which, in turn, is the novelty of the research.
This study focuses on the comparative analysis of the titles of feature films produced in the USA and their translation into Latvian
and Russian languages, and served as the main method of comparative study was the cognitive discourse analysis, which includes
elements of the component analysis, stylistic and other calculations, and, of course, introspection. The main objective of the study is
to analyse the titles of feature films (produced in the USA in 1991-2010) and their translation into Latvian and Russian languages to
establish implementation of adaptation communication strategy – the systems of communication strategies and communication moves
implementing them. Results of the analysis reflected in my monographic study “Cinematic Text and Translation” (published by Lambert,
2014). The comparative analysis involved 312 titles of adaptations, including 27 absolute precedent titles, 91 full precedent titles, 37
inverse precedent titles and 157 potential precedent titles; b) genre adaptation (250 titles and their translations; c) story adaptation (269
titles and their translations).
The initial sampling of feature film titles as well as their genre markers was based on films made in English (imdb.com), and then using
the database of titles in the Latvian language (ifdb.lv), we left those film titles that have translation into Latvian, and then sampled
translated titles in the database of films in the Russian language (kinopoisk.ru).
It should be stated that imdb.com has a section with materials dedicated to translations of film titles in many languages, but it would
not be feasible to take it as the basis as it is not quite fully represents materials for two target languages under review (and not just
for them): cf., 625 original titles of feature films between 1991-2000 have 135 Russian translations, 78 Estonian, 14 Lithuanian and
only 5 Latvian; and 1125 original film titles between 2001-2010 have 365 Russian, 307 Estonian, 124 Lithuanian and only 46 Latvian
translations.
A) Film adaptation
Most often precedent relations arise between the literary and cinematic text and the implementation of these relations is the film
adaptation. In general, researchers G.G. Slyshkin and M.A. Yefremova gave the film adaptation definition: “Adaptation is a translation
of the artwork from the language of art into screen verbal language” [1: 28p.]. However, the concept of verbal artwork is wide –
novels, short stories, plays, and poetry, comics, libretto, especially necessary to note works of a different kind, e.g., computer games.
In addition, the latest time foregrounds the issue of journalistic texts, because films are not cinematised only based on articles in
journalism, but also on blogs, therefore it is already implemented a broader definition: film adaptation is (virtualised) interpretation of
works of art and other types of communication by means of cinema.
Close relationship of the literary and cinematic texts provides a kind of feedback – books, representing retelling, literary record or record
of popular movie or TV series dialogues have sprung into popularity: this phenomenon opposite to adaptation is called novelisation.
To evaluate the translation, it is not enough to use the types of adaptations (literal film adaptation, after film adaptation; freestyle film
adaptation). Adaptations, their titles and translations can be considered from the standpoint of degree of precedent. In this aspect, the
translation becomes the exponent of precedent – the higher the precedent, the closer translation conveys the title of a literary work.
Thus, the first group includes works of literature known so that there is no need to call the author, era or otherwise explanation (typical
30 | Translation Journal - July 2015
