Rendition of psychological alienation in Sylvia Plath`s novel "The bell jar": personological approach

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Institute of Computer Science and Information Technologies of the Lviv Polytechnic National University

RENDITION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ALIENATION IN SYLVIA PLATH'S NOVEL “THE BELL JAR”: PERSONOLOGICAL APPROACH

Solovii S.R. 4th year Student

Hrytsiv N.M. Candidate of Philological Sciences,

Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer at the

Department of Applied Linguistics

Annotation

Key words: self-estrangement, translation analysis, depersonalization, affective implications, literary translation, novel, American literature.

The article investigates the notion of alienation in Sylvia Plath's only novel, “The Bell Jar”, and juxtaposes the original with the translation of the novel into the Ukrainian language. The work contains summary information about the author, a study of the term “alienation” and its components, the psychological aspect of this phenomenon, and views on alienation from various fields of scientific activity. The article seeks to provide an understanding of the context and circumstances of a particular work and the general scheme of analysis of the original and translation of texts. translation text alienation critical

The aim and the subject of the article are to make an investigation of the alienation from the psychological point of view, to figure out the most critical symptoms regarding the alienation and find these states in the original text, to see how the symptoms and conditions are expressed in both the original and the translated versions of the novel. The notion of alienation is quite vague, leaving many scientists and psychologists without a satisfactory definition. Commonly, the concept of alienation addresses the separation of a subject and object, which inherently go well together. In general, alienation is divided into the following five stages or components: devastation, anger, hatred of others, self-rejection, fear of loneliness. After defining the alienation in the given context, the citations from both versions of the novel have been carefully selected to be investigated on the above-mentioned criteria.

Selected citations were analyzed both by the criterion of the presence of characteristic features of alienation and the conformity of the translation to the original. Particular attention is paid to the differences between the two texts and how the translation of the work differs from its original in tone and individual phrases, metaphors, and other peculiarities of the target language. The article aims to show how the linguistic transformations and changes are conveyed into the Ukrainian version of the text, which introduces Sylvia Plath as a novelist to the Ukrainian audience and certainly revives this work in literature, published in Ukraine.

Анотація

ЗОБРАЖЕННЯ ПСИХОЛОГІЧНОЇ АЛІЄНАЦІЇ В РОМАНІ СИЛЬВІЇ ПЛАТ «ПІД СКЛЯНИМ КОВПАКОМ»: ОСОБИСТІСНИЙ ПІДХІД

Соловій С. Р. студентка IV курсу Інститут комп'ютерних наук і технологій Національного університету «Львівська політехніка»

Гриців Н. М. кандидат філологічних наук, доцент, доцент кафедри прикладної лінгвістики Національний університет «Львівська політехніка»

Ключові слова: відчуження, перекладацький аналіз, знеособлення, афективні стани, художній переклад, роман.

Стаття присвячена дослідженню поняття алієнації в єдиному романі Сильвії Плат «Під скляним ковпаком», а також порівнянню оригіналу з його українським перекладом. Стаття містить узагальнену інформацію про автора, дослідження терміна «алієнація», її складових частин, окрему увагу звернено на психологічний аспект цього поняття та погляди на відчуження з різних галузей наукової діяльності. Стаття прагне надати тлумачення контексту та обставин конкретного твору, загальну схему аналізу оригіналу та перекладу текстів.

Мета і предмет статті полягають у дослідженні алієнації із психологічного погляду, з'ясуванні найбільш критичних симптомів відчуження, виявленні цих станів в оригінальному тексті, з'ясуванні симптомів та станів, виражених в обох порівнюваних версіях роману.

Поняття алієнації є досить розмитим, що залишає багатьох науковців і психологів без задовільного визначення. Зазвичай поняття алієнації стосується суб'єкта й об'єкта, які природно співіснують. Окрім самоалієнації, феномен алієнації передбачає стосунки між суб'єктом і окремим аспектом контексту або оточення і, навіть у разі самоалієнації (інтроспективна алієнація), можна простежити відношення між суб'єктом і, наприклад, його недосяжним «Я». Загалом алієнація поділяється на такі п'ять стадій, або складових частин: спустошення, злість, ненависть до інших, самовідмова, страх самотності. Вибрані цитати проаналізовано за критерієм наявності характерних ознак алієнації і за достовірним переданням цих ознак у перекладеному тексті. Особлива увага приділяється відмінностям між двома текстами та тому, як переклад твору відрізняється від оригіналу за тоном і окремими фразами, метафорами, іншими особливостями мови перекладу.

Результати статті спрямовані на те, щоб побачити, як в оригіналі та перекладі твору передані стани, пов'язані з алієнацією, та які зміни й лінгвістичні трансформації здійснено в українському варіанті тексту, який знайомить українську аудиторію з такою письменницею, як Сильвія Плат, і, безумовно, оживляє цей твір в українському книжковому просторі.

The main text

The article investigates alienation as an impairment and psychological state in the only poem of English writer and poet Sylvia Plath. The topicality of the study is that of performing an analysis of the rendering of alienation in both Ukrainian and English, the original version of the poem, as well as of exposing the issue of the psychological ailment as existing for long and still being a part of people's lives, though is hardly ever mentioned and raised awareness of nowadays. The study's theoretical value lies in the theoretical background of investigation of alienation and other mental issues and social problems comprising a framework of the novel “The Bell Jar”.

The study's practical value resides in the coursework's usefulness for the statement and exposition of the translated version of the novel. It also raises awareness about the author in the context of Ukrainian literature and thus enables the Ukrainian reader to get to know Sylvia Plath.

“The Bell Jar” is one of the last works written by American poet, novelist, and short-story writer Sylvia Plath. The novel is autobiographical because much of Plath's personal emotional experience is what the main character goes through [4]. Early life central themes laid the book's basis, including psychological transformations, depression, and futility concerning life and ambitions. The differing aspect relates to the story's finale: the main character, Esther, continues to live despite the constant tension of hanging a bell jar; Plath finishes what she has started in the novel. Psychological alienations, madness, and other forms of deviations from the normal psychological state are traced throughout the novel, expressed in both implicit and explicit ways.

The background. The novel was published in the 1950s, just when the American women felt the same towards their lives and purposes [1, p. 6]. It encapsulates the desperation and wanderings of those who were, as they thought, unable to fit in the then-necessary routines, of those who “felt like a racehorse in a world without racetracks or a champion college footballer suddenly confronted by Wall Street and a business suit, his days of glory shrunk to a little gold cup on his mantel with a date engraved on it like the date on a tombstone”.

The plot unwraps around an adolescent girl striving to locate herself and to side with the environment she has been put in, the NYC bustling and vibrant life, resonating with the real events of Plath's life. There is a frequent, almost pathologic use of would's and should's throughout the novel, and these modals point out that something was about to be done, accomplished, or learned, but it wasn't. These are spoken out loud as an excuse to self for not being where one should or would have been. They bring relief and create the appearance of forging onwards to a longed-for future, unachieved for all the different reasons, which usually seem unreasonable. With plenty of readers who could relate to her inner turmoil, the protagonist creates her life in talking, not doing. However, the idealized future would of her seems to be far from real life, and this also leads to a mental disorder, which is portrayed in detail in the story plot, in the characters, and dialogues. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the term alienation is necessary to select valid examples from the texts and make a reliable analysis.

Alienation: elaboration over the term. The term “alienation” is considered slightly ambiguous depending on the subject and the field of study. We can trace the notion in the realm of psychiatry, where the term is interpreted as “depersonalization”, as well as in sociology, economic thought, and, finally, in psychological theory. In her book on alienation, Rahel Jaeggi mentions that “the concept of alienation refers to an entire bundle of intertwined topics” [5, p. 3].

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, alienation is “a distinct kind of psychological or social ill; namely, one involving a problematic separation between a self and other that properly belong together” [6]. This withdrawal might be due to various experiences, such as “discrimination, social isolation, or rejection from friends, parents, family, peers, or society” [2]. Six psychological variants of alienation conceptualization are present nowadays, stemming from Seeman's theory: powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, cultural disengagement (value-isolation), self-estrangement (“a despairing state of mind in which the individual cannot reconcile opposites internal to the self”), and social isolation [9, p. 18; 8, p. 783-791]. Interestingly, a separation frequently springs from the opposite desire - to be involved and participate. Shlomo Shoham formulates individual alienation in the light of the separation-participation correlation. He states that “<...> the pressures of separation which stem from three developmental stages that every individual passes through (birth, the molding of an “ego boundary”, and socialization into an “ego identity”) produce a corresponding desire for participation; but striving to overcome separation through participation is futile” [3, p. 17]. The process of alienation holds various stages, some of which could be observed from the text excerpts. The five states of alienation are considered not in the progressive order: devastation, anger, hatred, self-unacceptance, and fear of loneliness. The following examples, each representing one of the five stages of alienation, demonstrate how alienation is expressed in the English and Ukrainian versions of the novel.

Excerpt analysis:

From the beginning of the novel, the main character of “The Bell Jar” confesses herself. She reflects on the thoughts that occupy her head and finds them to be only about the convicted of espionage and her accomplishments, withering away. She is dissatisfied with the current state of affairs, misknowing herself, her expectations have not met reality. The devastation is expressed implicitly in the phrase:

I knew something was wrong with me that summer, because all I could think about was the Rosenbergs and how stupid I'd been to buy all those uncomfortable, expensive clothes, hanging limp as fish in my closet, and how all the little successes I'd totted up so happily at college fizzled to nothing outside the slick marble and plate-glass fronts along Madison Avenue. I was supposed to be having the time of my life. Я розуміла, що того літа щось зі мною було не так, адже всі мої думки крутилися довкола Розенберґів, того, навіщо я накупила незручного дорожезного одягу, який тепер висів у шафі дохлою рибою, і того, як мої дрібні здобутки, радісно назбирані в коледжі, вижарювалися нанівець на тротуарах під лискучими мармуровими й скляними фасадами Медісон-авеню. То мали би бути найщасливіші дні мого життя.

Here the author uses the word stupid to accentuate the insolence she feels toward herself, while the translator omits this attitude and delivers the phrase through the word навіщо, why. The negative connotation of the clause is therefore lost, substituted by a neutral adverb.

The word expensive here could as well be translated as дорогий, maintaining a neutral connotation. However, the translator adds a suffixed variant дорожезний, meaning over-priced, extortionate. This adjective adds a negative connotation, but it also creates a feeling of redundancy in the reader's eyes - the clothes purchased were over-priced, could be a waste of money. What's more, the character seems to treat this purchase as unnecessary as well, and the word дорожезний lays perfect emphasis on the fact that this was not a daily routine for her, but rather an unconscious act, again revolving over the fact that something was wrong.

Hanging limp as fish - висів <...> дохлою рибою. Undoubtedly, there is no worse smell than a fish stink; it spreads all around the house, and it is almost impossible to get rid of it. The adjective used in the target text is дохлий, and to read it is enough to smell the stench of a spoiled fish. Such a vibrant word helps the reader better understand the disgust the character feels when she speaks about the clothes in her wardrobe, which mess with her and hamper her.

Furthermore, an English equivalent for this word would be dead, sickly, weakly, which would also covertly imply the character's state. What's remarkable about Ukrainian grammar's peculiarities is that the adjectives can be transformed into the adverbial modifiers of manner (indicating how the action is performed and the means it is performed). Accordingly, висів <...> дохлою рибою (literally - hung like a dead fish) would answer a question how rather than which one or what kind of.

The feeling of not belonging to the community or society in which Esther lives, combined with depersonalization and the pain of estrangement, provokes bursts of anger, expressed in the sentence below.

I felt angry with Doreen for waking me up. All I stood a chance of getting out of that sad night was a good sleep, and she had to wake me up and spoil it. Я сердилася на Дорін, що розбудила мене. Єдиним способом добре закінчити ту печальну ніч для мене був здоровий сон, та їй забаглося розбудити мене й усе зіпсувати.

In the translation of the expression mentioned above, the verb phrase to feel angry is rendered through one verb, which results in the clear communication of the idea and simplifies the target text style. Another change in the translation unit is the transmission of the phrase she had to into їй забаглось. The Ukrainian language provides various stylistically colored speech parts, and the verbs are one of the most evident examples of this. The connotation of the word забаглось stands for wishing something, not necessary at the moment, something extra and not urgent. Thus the eagerness to get something in this particular case would have a negative understatement delivered more covertly in the original.

Hatred towards the others.

Despising other people is an apparent characteristic of Esther Greenwood's personality. Almost every person she encounters throughout the novel has something to irritate or bother her. One such instance of jealously and repugnance is described in the following excerpt.

Girls like that make me sick. I'm so jealous I can't speak. Від таких дівчат мене верне. Стає так заздрісно, що слів бракує.

The excerpt's translation suggests that the verb phrase can be rendered into the target text employing transposition of verb phrase into a single verb, the meaning of which suffices the transmission of the idea of vomiting into the Ukrainian. Furthermore, the Ukrainian verb верне is an intensified нудить, implying that the person cannot cope with the vomiting, cannot hold the way of living in anymore. This could also stand for Ester's mental state, her finding it challenging to accept others' lifestyles if they look superior to her own.

Self-unacceptance, dissatisfaction.

The question that bothers Esther Greenwood and is a subject for considerations throughout the novel is self-discontent in the areas she works and develops due to the disorder she has developed, which again prevents her from entering the reintegration after the estrangement [10, p. 26]. Especially bitter is the issue of motherhood. As a woman, Esther understands that the privilege of being a mother is highly valued in the community where she lives. Still, in her heart's deep caverns, she feels that she is not presupposed to taking such a role in society. Such contradictions stir up considerations about her particular nature and why she does not burn with the desire for motherhood. Such an issue is portrayed in the novel majorly because plenty of women experienced difficulties with similar concerns about their place in those times.

Why was I so unmaternal and apart? Why couldn't I dream of devoting myself to baby after fat puling baby like Dodo Conway? Чому я така відірвана від усіх, не по-материнському налаштована? Чому мені не мріється про те, щоб усю себе присвятити пухким плаксивим немовлятам, як це зробила Додо Конвей?

The author writes about Esther as unmaternal, meaning she has no predisposition to being a mother; however, this concept is not fully lexicalized in the target language. Here stands a problem of non-equivalence. To render this concept most clearly and distinctly, the translator uses a phrase which would serve as a substitute for one word, не по-материнському налаштована, meaning not in harmony with maternity, not meant to become a mother. This is an example of a cohesion shift - the structure is altered, but the theme is preserved. Then, the translation of the phrase couldn't I dream is rendered through an impersonal sentence мені не мріється. There is an opportunistic difference between personal and impersonal sentence types. When one says they could not dream, they are the ones who decide not to let the dreams into their heads, maybe for some conscious reasons.

In contrast, мені не мріється is caused by the person's inability to dream about certain things, her poor mental health and various circumstances influencing her general state fended her off from wishing to spend a life of a mother. In such a way, the translator accentuates that it was not entirely Esther's choice to find motherhood unattractive. What's more, the excerpt's translation says that Esther fails to devote all of herself, herself entirely, to children, although in the original text, the author writes devoting myself - perhaps, just a small part of her. This way, the translation exaggerates and assigns the willingness to be a mother to the whole person, not some aspect of her life.

Fear of being lonely, desire for communion.

As far as alienation concerns the individual and their relationships with the society and ambit of acquaintances, the people getting through this process avoid the community and an opportunity to establish contact. However, they remain dependent on others' emotions, and energy, for rarely can a person live a full life without communion [2]. They might earn some friends they are comfortable around, just what Esther did. Before her eyes, Doreen, her fellow, would provide confidence and entertain her.