THE IMAGE OF A WOMAN IN THE TRANSLATION OF ANTI-UTOPIA: SELF-PRESERVATION OR DEPERSONALIZATION (BASED ON THE NOVEL BY M. ATWOOD “THE HANDMAID’S TALE”)

Abstract

Purpose. The article deals with the main means employed to depict the image of a woman in the original and translation of a dystopian novel. Our research was aimed at establishing the impact of the cruel regime of Gilead on the evolution or rather degradation of the woman’s personality as a crucial factor in recreating the antihero image in translation. The study explores the destructive impact women in the world of Gilead are subject to as one of the distinctive features of the dystopian genre. The dominating position of the relations between authority and individual requires their consistent representation in the target text.

Methods. The objective is achieved through comparative analysis which allows for tracing the imagery associated with each step on the character’s way from resistance to submission. An intricate interplay of postmodern aesthetics and feminist ideas required a certain literary analysis employed to reveal the stylistic specifics of the original and translation as well as consideration of both linguistic and extralinguistic context against the background of which the image of the heroine is built.

Results. “The Handmaid’s Tale” holds a special place in the dystopian literature as it revolves around gender issues. The plot of the dystopia by M. Atwood is unfolding around the fate of a woman in a totalitarian system of government. The novel describes a society which was so apprehensive of a strong woman able to choose her social role as well as to live her sexuality the way she wishes, that it stripped all the women of any possible right to shape their own destiny. The mind of a dystopian hero or antihero is as chaotic and inconsistent as the outer world which results in a specific imagery of the literary text as well as broken syntax which sounds like an echo of Offred’s inner voice. The source text abounds in epithets and metaphors, repetitions serving as the basis for a certain play of words, etc.

Conclusions. The translator is rather successful in recreating the controversial image of the principal character. The translation quite closely follows the source text in terms of the tropes and rhetorical figures used to show gradual change in the stand the main character takes towards the governmental system. The Ukrainian language, in its turn, provides ample opportunities for reproduction of the broken syntax pertaining to the original.