MASARYK UNIVERSITY Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature John Green's Writing Style in Young Adult Literature: Analysis of Original Books and Official Slovak Translations Master's Thesis Brno 2019 Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. Bc. Lujza Valúšková Bibliography Valúšková, Lujza. John Green's Writing Style in Young Adult Literature: Analysis of Original Books and Official Slovak Translations: master's thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature. 2019, 85 pages. The supervisor of the master's thesis: Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. Abstract Master's thesis deals with the analysis of John Green's writing style in his Young Adult Literature novels. The thesis focuses on specific features, which define this style, and their translation in Slovak works. The theoretical descriptions of these features and translation strategies are summarised in the theoretical part of the thesis. The practical part consists of two main chapters. The first one introduces the specific elements and their translations divided into groups (anagrams, idioms, slang, vulgarisms, etc.), while the other one focuses on the analysis of visual features (capital letters, italics, punctuation, etc.) and their occurrence in Slovak translations. The aim of the thesis is to find out if, and to what extent the author's style is rendered into Slovak translations, and how it is influenced by various features, such as different translators' perceptions or constantly changing trends of the society. Key Words translation, analysis, translator, style, equivalence, visual features, anagrams, figurative language, translator's interpretation, puns, vulgarisms, slang, Green, Knittlová, Newmark Bibliografická identifikácia VALÚŠKOVÁ, Lujza. John Green's Writing Style in Young Adult Literature: Analysis of Original Books and Official Slovak Translations: master's thesis. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Pedagogická fakulta, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury. 2019. 85 strán. Vedúci magisterskej práce: Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. Anotácia Predmetom diplomovej práce je analýza štýlu písania amerického autora Johna Greena v literatúre pre deti a mládež. Práca je zameraná na konkrétne prvky, ktoré tento štýl vytvárajú a ich preklad v slovenských dielach. Popisy jednotlivých prvkov a prekladateľských stratégií sú zhrnuté v teoretickej časti práce. V praktickej časti sa práca venuje dvom hlavným kapitolám: v prvej možno nájsť konkrétne prvky a ich preklady rozdelené do skupín (prešmyčky, idiómy, slang, vulgarizmy, atď.), zatiaľ čo v druhej sa práca venuje analýze vizuálnych záležitostí (veľké a malé písmená, kurzíva, interpunkcia, atď.) a ich výskyt v prekladoch. Cieľom práce je zistiť či, a do akej miery sa štýl písania tohto autora zachováva v slovenských prekladoch, a akým spôsobom naň pôsobia faktory, ako sú napríklad vnímanie rôznych prekladateľov alebo stále sa meniace trendy spoločnosti. Kľúčové slová preklad, rozbor, prekladateľ, štýl, ekvivalencia, vizuálne prvky, prešmyčky, prenesený význam, interpretácia prekladateľa, slovné hračky, vulgarizmy, slang, Green, Knittlová, Newmark Prehlásenie Prehlasujem, že som diplomovú prácu vypracovala samostatne, s využitím len citovaných prameňov, ďalších informácií a zdrojov v súlade s Disciplinárnym poriadkom pre študentov Pedagogickej fakulty Masarykovej univerzity a so zákonom č. 121/2000 Zb., o práve autorskom, o právach súvisiacich s právom autorským a o zmene niektorých zákonov, v znení neskorších predpisov. Declaration I hereby declare that I worked on my Master's thesis independently and that all the used sources are listed in the bibliography. I agree with the work being stored in the library of the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University and made accessible for study purposes. Brno, November 2019 ............................................. Bc. Lujza Valúšková Acknowledgements I would like to thank Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. for guidance that he provided me as a supervisor, for his patience, advice and valuable help. Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 8 2 YOUNG ADULT FICTION ................................................................................... 10 3 JOHN GREEN AND HIS BOOKS ........................................................................ 11 3.1 John Green ....................................................................................................... 11 3.2 John Green's Books .......................................................................................... 11 3.2.1 Looking for Alaska .................................................................................... 12 3.2.2 An Abundance of Katherines ..................................................................... 12 3.2.3 Paper Towns ............................................................................................. 12 3.2.4 The Fault in Our Stars .............................................................................. 13 3.2.5 Turtles All the Way Down ......................................................................... 13 4 WRITING STYLE .................................................................................................. 14 4.1 Literary Communication .................................................................................. 14 4.2 Style and Content ............................................................................................. 14 4.3 John Green's Writing Style .............................................................................. 15 5 THE THEORY OF TRANSLATION ..................................................................... 16 6 EQUIVALENCE..................................................................................................... 18 6.1 Theoretical Introduction ................................................................................... 18 6.2 Analysis of Selected Features .......................................................................... 22 6.2.1 Anagrams .................................................................................................. 22 6.2.2 Figurative Language.................................................................................. 27 6.2.2.1 Metaphors ........................................................................................... 27 6.2.2.2 Idioms ................................................................................................. 28 6.2.2.3 Similes ................................................................................................ 32 6.2.3 Puns ........................................................................................................... 34 6.2.4 Proper Names and Nicknames .................................................................. 37 6.2.5 Slang .......................................................................................................... 41 6.2.5.1 “Cool” ................................................................................................ 42 6.2.5.2 Figurative Sense ................................................................................. 43 6.2.5.3 Intensifiers .......................................................................................... 44 6.2.5.4 Addressing ......................................................................................... 48 6.2.6 Vulgarisms ................................................................................................ 50 6.2.6.1 Mild Vulgarisms ................................................................................ 50 6.2.6.2 “Screw” .............................................................................................. 52 6 6.2.6.3 “Shit” .................................................................................................. 54 6.2.6.4 Strong Vulgarisms .............................................................................. 56 6.2.7 Translator's Interpretation ......................................................................... 58 6.2.7.1 Referential Mistake ............................................................................ 59 6.2.7.2 Linguistic Mistake .............................................................................. 60 6.2.7.3 Intention of Equivalence .................................................................... 61 6.2.7.4 Translator's Unawareness ................................................................... 63 6.2.8 Pragmatic Differences ............................................................................... 64 6.2.8.1 Adding Information ............................................................................ 65 6.2.8.2 Omitting Information ......................................................................... 65 6.2.8.3 Substitution by an Analogy ................................................................ 67 7 VISUAL FEATURES ............................................................................................. 70 7.1 Italics ................................................................................................................ 70 7.2 Capital Letters .................................................................................................. 71 7.3 Short Sentences ................................................................................................ 72 7.4 Omission of Commas ......................................................................................