Conveying extended metaphors in M. Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” (revisiting translation adequacy)

Abstract

   In this paper, we will discuss the possibility of establishing the right relation between interpreting freedom and the necessity to follow the letter of the original, the whole issue being viewed as part of a translation adequacy problem. The case study involves the Russian version of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” made by Anastasia Gryzunova. We deem poetics to be the novel’s dominant literary function. To validate the hypothesis, we examined “dehumanizing” metaphors, dehumanization being the major literary motif in the “brave new world” of fictional Gilead. The “dehumanizing” meaning has therefore formed the basis for our choice of text fragments, containing metaphoric language and bearing special conceptual significance. The study of “dehumanizing” meanings, expressed in a comparative figurative language, has supported the initial conjecture about the sensemaking role of metaphor in Atwoodian narrative. The comparative analysis of translated fragments against the original has shown that Gryzunova’s decision making was informed largely by the interpreter’s own intuition, rather than a conscious, data-based strategizing. We suggest that translation adequacy be interpreted as methodological consistency in pursuing a strategy building on the key ideas of the source text. More importantly, such approach should (and does, actually) prioritize the interpreter’s creative streak.