The article is devoted to the analysis of the problems which a translator comes across, trying to convey the national cultural notions when the globalization process is under way, and it can make many of them meaningless, if not at all existing. In such situation the translator is to attract the attention of potential readers to the notions of the cultural background which are to be conveyed to them. Such translation process presupposes the reflection of culture, history and numerous allusions of the original text. The subject matter of the analysis is the phenomenon of the national cultural background and the ways of representing it to the Russian readers. For this reason, it is necessary to identify the elements of the British cultural background which are to be conveyed. The choice of the source language (SL) text for translation was motivated by the political processes in the British society which have caused many changes in its mentality and have concentrated the attention of the public on national identity. For this reason, we have chosen the chapter “Illiberal Democrats” from the book by J. Baggini “Welcome to Everytown” (Baggini, 2008) and in the process of translation we have made an attempt to disclose the principle features of British identity. The methodology of the analysis is based on the notions of cultural background and cognitive approach to translation process. They presuppose translator’s reflection of culture, history and numerous allusions of the original text. The cognitive approach to translation allows the translator to make deeper observations and reflections of the SL text and give a full idea of the contents and the intentions of the author in the target language (TL) text. The cognitive approach and the non-formal understanding of the original text allow us to interpret its deep structure and convey the intentional contents of it. We have come to the conclusion that any SL text always contains obvious and not obvious cultural assumptions, which may cause wrong understanding and associations of a potential TL reader, who, either cannot derive the right connotations of the original, or attributes to it the connotations which he thinks the text contains.
The article is devoted to the analysis of the problems which a translator comes across, trying to convey the national cultural notions when the globalization process is under way, and it can make many of them meaningless, if not at all existing. In such situation the translator is to attract the attention of potential readers to the notions of the cultural background which are to be conveyed to them. Such translation process presupposes the reflection of culture, history and numerous allusions of the original text. The subject matter of the analysis is the phenomenon of the national cultural background and the ways of representing it to the Russian readers. For this reason, it is necessary to identify the elements of the British cultural background which are to be conveyed. The choice of the source language (SL) text for translation was motivated by the political processes in the British society which have caused many changes in its mentality and have concentrated the attention of the public on national identity. For this reason, we have chosen the chapter “Illiberal Democrats” from the book by J. Baggini “Welcome to Everytown” (Baggini, 2008) and in the process of translation we have made an attempt to disclose the principle features of British identity. The methodology of the analysis is based on the notions of cultural background and cognitive approach to translation process. They presuppose translator’s reflection of culture, history and numerous allusions of the original text. The cognitive approach to translation allows the translator to make deeper observations and reflections of the SL text and give a full idea of the contents and the intentions of the author in the target language (TL) text. The cognitive approach and the non-formal understanding of the original text allow us to interpret its deep structure and convey the intentional contents of it. We have come to the conclusion that any SL text always contains obvious and not obvious cultural assumptions, which may cause wrong understanding and associations of a potential TL reader, who, either cannot derive the right connotations of the original, or attributes to it the connotations which he thinks the text contains.