Ghost story. On the problem of interpretation and translation of one term

Abstract

   The article deals with a widely used term ghost story which causes some problems in Russian translation, although its understanding is essential for meaningful discussions of late Gothic fiction. In English, this term can refer to three different types of text: a folk narrative about ghosts, a literary story on a similar theme and a kind of documentary prose. All these genres are genetically related to each other. The interest in folk oral narrations generated literary stories in which ordinary people encounter the world of supernatural; they often include a complex narrative frame that presents the figure of the narrator and makes the reality of the story problematic. Later on, non-fiction books appeared, containing allegedly true ghost stories. All the three genres are different not only in function, but in form, e. g., short stories are always full and detailed, for it is important not only to convey information, but also to create a certain atmosphere. In Russian academic tradition there is no relevant terminology, and a mere literal translation would be verbose and would show no difference between the genres. The article proposes to call one of them, a fictional story, ‘a Gothic novella’ because of its structure and its being a part of late Gothic tradition in literature.