THE USE OF AI IN LITERARY TRANSLATION: A CASE STUDY OF «ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH»

Abstract The paper examines the features and main challenges of translating classic literature, analyzes the translation of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s novel «One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich» by H. T. Willetts, and demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of using AI for translating classic works from Russian into English. The purpose of the paper is to highlight the problems of literary translation and assess the quality of the AI-generated translation of «One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich». The relevance of the study lies in the fact that AI is one of humanity’s most significant recent innovations, gradually entering the field of translation; however, at present, there is almost no analysis of AI’s success in translating Russian literary classics. The first part of the article details the differences between modern and classical literature using descriptive and comparative analysis methods. The second part identifies realia as one of the most complex lexical layers, which was satisfactorily conveyed to the English-speaking audience in H. T. Willetts’s translation. A historical method was applied. In the final part, the author presents a diagram illustrating the techniques used by AI in translating thirty realia (lexical units) and accentuates the strengths and weaknesses of AI-generated content through specific examples. Component and contextual analysis methods were employed. The research results can be used for an in-depth study of AI’s potential in translating classical literature.