Adaptation in Speculative Fiction Translation (Case Study of Charlie Huston’s “Catchpenny”)

Abstract

This paper focuses on showcasing the practical application of adaptation in translating speculative fiction and, in particular, the meaningful names and irrealia involved in the author’s world-building. The material was provided by the American author and screenwriter’s novel Catchpenny (2024) and its Ukrainian translation by the writer of this article, published in 2025. The main goals pursued by this research were to find the names and irrealia where adaptation was used, to describe their semantic elements, to see how much of their semantics was preserved in adaptation, and to discover whether adaptation was possible for all such units.

The achievement of those goals required thorough studying of the following key aspects: adaptation strategies in translation (a well-developed area of translation studies embodied in multiple papers and many years of research); translation of proper names, specifically meaningful names (an age-old but still completely relevant translatology problem); translation of irrealia (a comparatively new area of translation studies with numerous prospects). Researching all these key elements confirmed that the subject and object of this research are relevant and would remain topical for years to come.

The study showed that the novel in question (Catchpenny) has more than thirty fictional world-pertaining meaningful names and irrealia. By using the descriptive method, the writer of the research showed in detail how adaptation strategy was applied to these units, by analyzing the semantics of both the originals and the translations and comparing the meanings of both to predict the impact of the Ukrainian versions on the reader. It was established that for most units, it had been possible to preserve the key semantic elements and find ways to adapt them to the cultural and linguistic needs of the Ukrainian reader. The paper also showcases more and less successful adaptations and explains how the translator had decided whether to use adaptation in each particular example.