engleski

Translation of slang in Croatian and Russian translations of Anthony Burgess’ "A Clockwork Orange"

For the young protagonists of his 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange written in the English language, Anthony Burgess invented a timeless slang called Nadsat, which is mainly based on the Russian language, thus challenging the translators with the task of preserving the linguistic creativity and atemporality employed in the novel. This must also be complemented by the easiness with which the slang is apprehended due to its embeddedness in the context. These factors render the translation process into any language exigent and give translators a plethora of opportunities to showcase their creativity. Considering the different approaches that the translators into various languages used to translate and reinvent the invented slang, the aim of this paper is to test the importance of the context for the comprehension of different translations of Nadsat on the example of the sole Croatian translation and two Russian translations which use diametrically opposite approaches to the translation of the slang. That is, the objective is to see how well native speakers of Croatian and Russian comprehend the translation of the novel’s invented slang in isolation and in context, as well as to some extent compare the level of their comprehensibility.

A Clockwork Orange, translation, slang, Nadsat, invented language, context

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