Medieval and folk Russian culturonyms in contemporaryAmerican novels authored by bilingual heritage writers

Abstract

This article examines Russian culturonyms in contemporary American literature. American authors come from a variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and their literary works often reflect translingual and/or transcultural features. The relevance of this article is owed to the expanding study of bilingual creativity among bilingual and bicultural individuals. Bilingual authors, who are also heritage language speakers, often possess linguacultural hybridity because they were raised with several languages and cultures. It is in their fiction writing that this hybridity is often expressed. The aim of this work is to reveal and analyze culture-specific words from Russian medieval linguaculture found in literary works of Nicholas Kotar and Olesya Salnikova-Gilmore, American writers of Russian descent. The bilingual heritage writers often opt for internal translation to describe Russian culturonyms to English-speaking readers. By doing so, bilingual and bicultural writers of Russian heritage introduce and familiarize English speakers with elements of Russian linguaculture. This, in turn, further contributes to the growing English-Russian contact in transcultural literature. In their English-language novels, Kotar and Salnikova-Gilmore skillfully incorporate and adapt Russian culture-specific words and concepts. The findings may provide insight into contemporary literary works written by bilingual heritage writers and their linguacultural hybridity, including the translation strategies implemented in their original interlinguacultural texts.