Translation of Cultural Elements in Kai Aareleid’s Linnade Põletamine into English by Adam Cullen

Abstract

When a literary text, containing culture-specific references, either to items, concepts or historical events, is translated into another language and brought into the target language’s cultural space, the text becomes a representation of the source culture and its values. The thesis at hand offers an insight into the translation process of the transfer of cultural elements from one language and cultural space into another. Thus, the thesis aims to document the possibly problematic areas and analyse the translation of cultural elements of (Soviet) Estonia in Kai Aareleid’s Burning Cities (“Linnade põletamine”) into English. The introduction gives a brief summary of the novel and introduces its main characters, as well as provides the historical background to the time period in which the novel is set, and discusses the particular linguistic situation created by it. The literature review provides an overview of different modes in which cultural elements could be manifested in a literary text and provides a variety of different methods for their translation. The empirical part starts with introducing methodology, then discusses the cultural elements found in the novel and examines the approach taken in their translation.