Social stratification through language: Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and „Salajane ajalugu“ by Liina Viires

Abstract

Social stratification is a central aspect in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and is largely conveyed through linguistic variation in character speech. This thesis compares the employment of idiolects, sociolects, and register in the novel and its Estonian translation by Liina Viires. As Estonia has a significantly different sociopolitical history and is a much younger literary language than English, this thesis hypothesises that the distinctions in character speech are less prominent in Estonian. The introduction provides a summary of the novel, an overview of its popularity, and insight into the elements which convey social stratification in the novel. The literature review provides theoretical background regarding the linguistic varieties of idiolect, sociolect, and register, how these varieties are used in character construction, and the possibilities and limitations of Estonian in their translation. The empirical section explains the methodology of the research and examines the use of linguistic varieties in both the original text and its translation. Keywords: Donna Tartt, The Secret History, translation analysis, sociolinguistics