Sylvia Plath’s I felt-Narrative Label of The Bell Jar in Ukrainian
Translation: Tagging Textness Features
Nataliia Hrytsiv 1, Ivan Bekhta 1,2, Mariya Tkachivska 3 and Vasyl Byalyk 4
1
Lviv Polytechnic National University, Stepana Bandery Street, 12, Lviv, 79000, Ukraine
2
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Universytetska Street, 1, Lviv, 79000, Ukraine
3
Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Shevchenko Street, 57, Ivano-Frankivsk, 76018, Ukraine
4
Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Kotsiubynskyi Street, 2, Chernivtsi, 58012, Ukraine
Abstract
The paper is conducted within the scope of digital humanity and illustrates the combination
of computational translatology in connection to semantics. This study aimed to investigate
the rendition of I felt-narrative label, presented in Sylvia Plath‘s novel The Bell Jar.
Methodology of the research relies on cognitive strategy (macrolevel) and content analysis
(microlevel). Special notice is given to the major levels of narrative analysis: structure and
comprehension. To establish whether I felt-narrative label of alienation is preserved in the
translated variant we employ TEI standard instructions and XML markup language, which
encompasses the novelty of the paper. The research illustrates practical application of
Antoine Berman‘s analytic translation to Ukrainian translations and presents (a) juxtaposing
source text I felt- narrative label(s) with their translated variants and, on this basis, (b)
defining translation tendency. Preliminary findings can serve as a critical model for
translation analysis for better understanding of how ‗the analytic of translation‘ may be co-
opted in the study of author‘s style dominants being preconditioned by author‘s cognitive
strategy (especially in first person narrative) with the intention to be comprehended by a
source text reader, a translator, and a target text reader.
Keywords 1
NLP, literary translation, negative analytic, Sylvia Plath, I felt-narrative label, tagging, mark-
up, computational translatology
1. Introduction
It becomes obvious that the phenomenology of thinking and cognitive experiences gain utmost
attention of current studies (within neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, philology, narratology,
literary studies, and digital humanities). Promising, though, less presented is translatological
perspective, i.e. comprehensive study on how emotions are verbalized into a textual form and,
moreover, re-expressed in the translation.
Emotion, cognition and literature have already gained noticeable attention [17; 30; prior studies
can be found in: 48].
In this respect, Sylvia Plath‘s narration presents a perfect example of the narrator's alienated
consciousness encoded in a literary text, because her unit message represented by a sentence discloses
the content of a mental act of alienating.
COLINS-2022: 6th International Conference on Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Systems, May 12–13, 2022, Gliwice, Poland
EMAIL: nataliia.m.hrytsiv@lpnu.ua (N. Hrytsiv); ivan.a.bekhta@lpnu.ua (I. Bekhta); mariatkachivska@gmail.com (M. Tkachivska);
v.bialyk@chnul.edu.ua (V. Byalyk)
ORCID: 0000-0001-6660-7161 (N. Hrytsiv); 0000-0002-9848-1505 (I. Bekhta); 0000-0001-9989-9156 (M. Tkachivska); 0000-0001-7428-
7145 (V. Byalyk)
2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
To recall, anxieties marking American life and literature of the 20 th c. have been crystallized for
the mind of Sylvia Plath. As a representative of The Age of Anxiety [33], Plath accumulated her vision
of the turbulent period within the era of unprecedented societal tumult through the prism of disillusion
of ordinary life (marriage, motherhood, and work) and women‘s household responsibilities and
chores [42].
The article seeks to find out how Sylvia Plath‘s I felt- narrative label (hereafter, I felt-NL) is
translated into Ukrainian. This study is part of a larger research project on the creativity of Sylvia
Plath and the reception of her writings via translation(s). Having defined the importance of the
connection of emotion, image and fiction [22; 27; 41; 42; 43], we justify our presumption that, with
Sylvia Plath, I felt- NL is dominant and meaningful, rather than arbitrary and accidental.
Millennia of storytelling represent the large array of works that systematically depict emotions [46;
23; 35], less attention is given to emotion rendition in translation, especially from the cognitive and
comprehensive perspective [6].
Plath repeatedly uses I felt-NL avoiding specification or explication where it might be expected.
This convinces us that this I felt-NL is syntactically and semantically defined by the author.
Our objective is to arrive to a set of theoretical and empirical grounds which help to study the
influence of the textual factors of the novel along with cognitive approach to literary prose
comprehension.
The study primarily uses cognitive perspective [13; 12; 30; 32; 38; 44; 45; 49; 50; 52; 53] that
entails the orientation towards social, mental and psychological backgrounds and surroundings of
discourse.
To interpret the alienation unit [5], preconditioned by the representation of individual psychic
states, within the STs and then to have the texture for analyses in translation we rely on three
aspectual analysis: cognitive, narratological, translatological. We make use of the term narrative
labelling [3] to demarcate the unit analysed from the viewpoint of narrative analysis, cognitive
stylistics and translation studies analysis.
Along with cognitive strategy, we rely on content analysis since it offers solid theoretical and
methodological grounds and elaborated set of parameters, typical of narrative analysis. Nontextual
factors are delineated by means of cognitive stylistics.
The approach employed for this textual bottom-up microlevel investigation is interpretative,
relying on findings in content analysis as elaborated by Patron [31, p. 59]. Our argumentation is that
the system of categories within content analysis endeavours to operationalize the meaning unit,
chosen here is the meaning unit of the I felt+alienation in translation.
Conceptual background is modelled to optimally fit the analyses of defined unit of meaning, i.e. I
felt-NL+alienation. A key issue in the analyses below will be the preservance or distortion of I felt-
NL+alienation in the Ukrainian translation.
These fragmented constructs are framed and tagged from the viewpoint of social estrangement as
well as self-estrangement, strengthened via I felt-labelling; by their means the heroine, as well as
Plath, communicates her message of alienation and devastation in the world of ugliness.
2. Conceptual background and method
2.1. Terminological differentiation
Within the communicational theory of narration, a unit message to be represented by a sentence, in
this conception of language, is the content of a mental act of judging, wishing, etc. [31, p. 71].
Relevant is the understanding that the narrator – Sylvia Plath – communicates her unit massage of
alienation by/within a sentence, thus textual means are relevant for the analysis.
Therefore, the unit in prose fiction is not the word, but the event (emphasis is ours) [27]. If
misinterpreted in translation, the event of the novel trivializes the original.
Moreover, ‗a theory of narration based on the notion of narrator (the narrator theory of narration)
must claim that each sentence of a story […] is a message communicated by the narrator; each
sentence is the product of an act of judging in the narrator‘s consciousness‘ [31; 47].
Merits of narratology as reflected in Translation Studies come from scholarly elaborations of
various resources [2; 4; 37].
Extensive research has been done in the field of language, social class and discourse [11; 14; 24;
39; 10; 51], with close attention to the mind mapping and context. We are interested in the labelling
being comprehended from the discursive, narratological and translatological perspective.
We opt for the alternative that would secure textual and nontextual parameters. In view of that, this
study considers the conceptual foundation of narrative labelling; it explores and discusses labelling in
accordance with Mona Baker‘s framing narratives in translation and refers to the discursive process
that involves using lexical item, or, rather, phrases to identify a person and an event seen as a key
element in a narrative.
2.2. Methodological preliminaries
Since the purpose of the present study is not only to explore I felt-NL in the original version, but
also to detect the accuracy of their rendition and comprehension via translation, it becomes obvious
that, an alternative and more reliable translational approach to the analysis of literary text needs the
update, especially within the scope of cognitive stylistics [29; 38; 52] which has profoundly affected
the direction of translation studies in the twenty-first century [13].
Following [13] and [37] we share the idea that cognitive stylistics is a new approach to the analysis
and interpretation of literary discourse and regards the concept of context as cognitive entity and
views context as a cognitive entity that encompasses knowledge about text‐types, sociological roles
and settings and relies on the interplay of the individual, the cultural and the universal.
Hogan [18] states verbal art to be still largely absent, though topical, from the interdisciplinary
study of emotion.
It seems plausible that different text forms of the narrative are co-opted and interdependent with
cognitive form [1; 21; 36; also see: 7; 8].
Recollecting the words of Stephen Straight, Denetti [9, p. 298] claims that the truly ‗creative‘
aspect of language resides in comprehension mediated by a mind capable of reflecting upon the
multiple meanings attachable to an utterance, which become available through self-comprehension (or
deep interpretation of another's utterance) and can lead to a new thought to be expressed and re-
interpreted, and so on indefinitely.
The methodological point of departure is the combination of both cognitive (top-down) and
textual (bottom-up) comprehension process (from the viewpoint of a reader, a translator, and a
translation studies scholar). Textual (bottom-up) comprehension process is well studied [4; 15; 16; 19;
20; 54].
For more sensible and realistic analysis, it is necessary ―to strike a balance on the cognitive-
textual continuum‖ [13, p.30].
Important to highlight is the significance of cognitive strategy employed for the analysis.
Following the ideas of [51] on contextual and textual strategies and [55] on cognitive control system,
the assumption to be set forth is that verbatim information of the prosaic text denotes a variety of
author‘s cognitive actions and triggers reader‘s literary comprehension, thus, needs thorough
elucidation in translation. We hold the belief that surface structure representation is co-determined by
both textual and cognitive factors [10; 40].
The emphasis on the verbal representation of a source text on which a translator focuses (or needs
to focus) his or her attention neglects, if we may, the social, mental and psychological backgrounds
and surrounding of the creator, writer of the original.
Hence, the novel model needs to be spelt out to find the links between the mind and the process of
reading; with the emphasis on the individual and the environment as well as on how the environment
shapes the brain and the mind of the author, the ‗cognitive structure‘ in terms of Culpeper.
Within the scope of the present study, the examined labeled meaning units of the narrative are
comprehended as: (a) syntactically defined units: I felt (b) semantically defined units: those denoting
alienation via devastation and emotional dislocation.
Within the realm of the phenomenology of thinking, Denneti [9] concludes that ‗language
infects and inflects our thought at every level‘ and adds that ‗the words in our vocabularies are
catalysts that can precipitate fixations of content as one part of the brain tries to communicate with
another‘. Another aspect he singles out that ‗the structures of the stories we learn provide guidance at
a different level, prompting us to ask ourselves the questions that are most likely to be relevant to our
current circumstances [9, p. 301].
This implies that we identify the original NL one-by-one and study its translation, both separately
and in the connection to the whole network of I felt-NL significance. With this in mind, section 2
explains, what changes (mostly destructive) each variable has undergone in translation.
We do so in line with Berman‘s approach to novel translation; centrally concerned is a feature of I
felt- NL from the viewpoint of Berman‘s [4, p. 12] negative analytic of translation.
2.3. TEI application towards ‘meaning unit’ tagging
The Text Encoding Initiative is the standard for presenting textual material in digital form using
text encoding tools. Thus, we rely on the instructions of TEI, as well as the XML markup language.
Due to its advantages and wide popularity, XML has become the metalanguage of choice for
expressing the rules of descriptive text encoding in TEI [57; 58; 59; 60]. The advantage of TEI is
obvious since TEI is expressed in terms of extensible markup language (XML) and it provides all the
procedures and mechanisms to adapt to specific project needs [61; 62; 63].
The TEI guidelines define an open standard that can normally be applied to any text and may
satisfy any purpose. In this respect, in focus is meaning units designating I felt + alienation via
devastation and emotional dislocation.
Used are:
- sentence marking
- tagging meaning unit
n=1; n – number, 1 – sequence numbering
Below is Figure 1 with the sample of the chosen textness segment mark-up:
Figure 1: Example of text markup of the original and translation
Next see Figure 2 illustrating the fragment of the created corpus:
Figure 2: Generated corpus data
2.4. Translation challenges: considering novel parameters
The novel under analysis [34; 56] is rich in flashbacks of the main heroine Esther Greenwood,
which shows the period of her studying in college. These flashback fragments abound in the chosen
variables: I felt + alienation (via devastation and emotional dislocation).
The algorithm of analyzing the rendition of alienated consciousness (being verbalized via
conflict) in translation might be described as follows:
the sender expresses the content of a mental act of alienation in a linguistic form, hereith, I
felt-NL;
the first addressee (a translator) perceives this linguistic form by reading and interpreting it,
and, eventually, understands its meaning and the content of the addressor‘s mental act;
a translator (the re-addressor) re-expresses the content of a mental act of alienation in a
linguistic form;
the second addressee (a final reader) perceives this linguistic form by reading and interpreting
it, and, eventually, understands its meaning and the content of the addressor‘s mental act.
If the algorithm is conducted ideally, then the textual communication succeeds and the final
reader‘s horizon of expectations is satisfied.
To verify syntactic and semantic (in)adequacy of Plath‘s message in the Ukrainian translation we
shall incorporate Antoine Berman‘s ‗negative analytic‘ of translation; study semantically permissible,
if not syntactically necessary, translation tendencies evident in the target text (hereafter, TT);
conclude whether The Bell Jar reads alienated in Ukrainian.
We have chosen A. Berman‘s model since he is among translation studies scholars who has
elaborated novel-oriented ‗analytics of translation‘.
Berman states that ‗all translation is, and must be, the restitution of meaning‘ on the one hand,
and ‗restoration of the particular signifying process of works (which is more than their meaning), on
the other hand – on which we agree.
Claiming that translation tends to reduce variation, Berman elaborates twelve ‗deforming
tendencies‘ (p. 280): rationalization, clarification, expansion, ennoblement, qualitative
impoverishment, quantitative impoverishment, the destruction of rhythms, the destruction of
underlying networks of signification, the destruction of linguistic patternings, the destruction of
vernacular networks or their exoticization, the destruction of expressions and idioms, the effacement
of the superimposition of languages.
Unit of meaning under analysis is the labelling: I felt + alienation (via devastation and emotional
dislocation). First and foremost, the challenge is obvious with the signifier felt. The word has a
number of substantives in Ukrainian that constitute different shades of a particular perception; thus, in
the Ukrainian language there exist such lexemes as:
Почуватися (to feel oneself);
Відчувати (to feel, to sense, to perceive);
Передчувати (to anticipate);
Чути (in the abstract notion as in not to feel the ground beneath your feet).
Unit(s) of meaning in the current paper is the smallest textual unit within which the
occurrence of labelling I felt + alienation unit is examined. This unit is consequently invoked to
establish the link between the ST unit and its representation in the TT.
3. Findings and discussions
In the subchapter we illustrate the mark-up procedure of the meaning unit enclosing the chosen
textness fragment. Then we offer translation studies insights following each excerpt.
3.1. I felt-NL example 1
Figure 3 depicts the first sample for analysis:
Figure 3: Sample of the original and translation parallel markup
Discussion:
Mirrored in her heroine Esther, Sylvia Plath exemplifies her feeling of being ‗split between a
fabricated public self and a truer and more elusive hidden self‘ (p.14). This variable depicts the
situation when Esther learned she was not accepted into the writing programme she applied for and
was obliged to spend summer time with her mother in the outskirts. She feels suffocated and trapped
within the social norms that disgust and exhaust her. Variable 1 is presented by the comparison of a
person to a racehorse in a world without racetracks, meaning deprived of the possibility to fulfill its
natural desires and triggers; it is intensified with the comparison to 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, meaning he had to adopt to
societal demands and reality (suddenly confronted by Wall Street and a business suit) while his inner
energy got suppressed (his days of glory shrunk to a little gold cup on his mantel) symbolizing the
death of his dreams and ambitions (with a date engraved on it like the date on a tombstone).
The variable is meant to depict an alienated individual who feels at a loss because of being
relocated from the usual cognitive environment, and placed within the realm of estranged
circumstances; the circumstances that intrude into self wellbeing, which bother and do not feel
comfortable or satisfying anymore; the location itself may remain unchanged. In variable 1, the main
heroine communicates her current state by illustrating discomfort, compared to a racehorse or football
player, feeling perplexed and aghast when put in the odd conditions.
ST meaning unit I felt like a racehorse in a world without racetracks is re-expressed in
translation as Я почувалася скаковим конем у світі без іподромів (back translation: I felt a
racehorse in the world without hippodromes) and reads fluent and natural in Ukrainian. The
opposition of a horse without a track is well preserved. However, ST meaning unit I felt […] 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 mantle with a date engraved on it like the date on a tombstone has
undergone a deforming tendency. Thus a champion college footballer is rationalized to the expression
видатним футболістом (back translation: famous footballer); confronted by Wall Street and a
business suit is rationalized as опинився на Волл-стріт у діловому костюмі (back translation: is,
occurs to be in Wall Street in a business suit) and his days of glory is clarified as колишня слава
(back translation: past/previous glory).
The trial of translation (in Berman‘s terms) is mostly vivid concerning the meaning unit
confronted by Wall Street and a business suit in terms of the Ukrainian text being uprooted from its
original language context. This choice of the translator destroyed the underlying network of
signification. The point is that, individually, that is to say, used separately, these words may not be
significant, but they add an underlying exactitude of content of a mental act embossed to the text. The
network of words detoning confrontation restores the particular signifying process of Plath‘s writing.
Saying it metaphorically, the whole life of Sylvia Plath as well as Esther Greenwood was ‗the art of
dying, struggling and confronting‘, confronting herself, confronting norms and society she was put in,
confronting her past as well as the future. The variable I felt […] confronted by Wall Street and a
business suit is lost in translation.
The image of a little gold cup on his mantel with a date engraved on it like the date on a
tombstone is adequately preserved in translation вдома на камінній полиці в крихітному
золоченому кубку з датами, вибитими мов на надгробку. However, the action verb shrunk is
omitted in translation and, thus, its semantics denoting the process of belittling, being powerful and
becoming meaningless is lost. Instead, the lexeme вдома (at home) makes the reader evoke the
emotion of comfort and coziness, which is exactly the opposite to what is semantically defined in a
unit message in the original novel.
Finding: ST alienation variable 1 is re-expressed in translation with partial deformation;
prevailing is the tendency of rationalization, clarification and destruction of the underlying network of
signification.
3.2. I felt-NL example 2
Figure 4 depicts the second sample for analysis:
Figure 4: Second sample parallel markup
Discussion:
This variable depicts Esther‘s feeling of emptiness. Contextually, it portrays the development
of Esther‘s mental illness, when she is not able to enjoy her life and find comfort with the people who
surround her. The use of analogy – the eye of a tornado – seems to encapsulate self-estrangement
within the empty eye of the tornado while the rest of the world is triumphing over life and vibrancy.
Unable to control her emotions, Esther succumbs to a state of numbness. Significant is Sylvia Plath‘s
choice to self-expression via personification the way the eye of a tornado must feel.
To recall, the devastation is so overwhelming that the feeling of emptiness and hopelessness is
attributed to the natural phenomena, excruciating and destructive.
ST meaning unit I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel is re-
expressed in the translation in the lines Я почувалася геть вкляклою, геть порожньою – певно,
так почувається центр торнадо. It has, though, undergone a number of deformations. The
semantics of the meaning unit is well preserved; the translator‘s decision making resulted in the
substitution of the image dominant (eye), thus deformation of the texture: the eye of a tornado is re-
expressed as центр торнадо (the center of the tornado). She further clarifies an abstract hullabaloo
to concrete хаотичний вихор (chaotic whirlwind). This mode of clarification marks the movement
from polysemy to monosemy. Explication, according to Berman, aims to render ‗clear‘ what does not
wish to be clear in the original (p. 281).
The transformation of the movement moving dully into мляво повзучи (sluggishly moving)
resonates well with the intonation of the novel texture and its mood.
Finding: ST alienation variable 2 is re-expressed in translation with partial deformation;
prevailing is the tendency of clarification and rationalization.
3.3. I felt-NL example 3
Fig. 5 demonstrates the third excerpt to be analyzed:
Figure 5: Third sample parallel markup
Discussion:
To talk about the meaning unit of variable 3, let us first analyse the zeugma I felt overstuffed
and dull and disappointed. As a matter of fact, these words signify the promises of youth years of
Esther which, in the majority of cases, failed to be satisfying. I felt the overstuffed construct unfolded
later in the sentence and exemplified by Christmas context. In the meantime, the I felt dull and
disappointed construct resonates with the semantic dominant of Sylvia Plath and denotes
senselessness, devastation and emotional dislocation.
The translator distorts this novelistic curdle and the underlying network of signification by
adopting the crucial semantic shifts in the translated text. The translated variant ties (semantically and
syntactically) all three words overstuffed and dull and disappointed to Christmas: Напередодні я
переїла, дорогою почувалася знуджено й розчаровано, як то завжди після Різдва (On the eve I
ate too much (ate too much is one word in translation as the Ukrainian language is synthetic and
affixations allow that), on the way I felt bored and disappointed, as always after Christmas).
Nevertheless, the translation catches the subtext of the promises that failed to come true and to be
satisfying: as if whatever it was the pine boughs and the candles and the silver and gilt-ribboned
presents and the birch-log fires and the Christmas turkey and the carols and the piano promised
never came to pass is re-expressed as наче хтось пообіцяв мені, що соснові гілки, і свічки, і
срібно-золоті стрічки, і вогнища на березових дровах, і різдвяна індичка, і колядки під
акомпанемент піаніно ніколи не закінчаться, а вони закінчилися (as if someone had promised me
that pine branches, and candles, and silver and gold ribbons, and bonfires on birch wood, and a
Christmas turkey, and carols to the accompaniment of a piano would never finish, and they finished).
Though placed at the end of the sentence structure in translation ніколи не закінчаться, а вони
закінчилися (would never finish, and they finished), the sentence construction employed perfectly
organizes the mode of expression.
Interesting fact, the variable 3 is a rare sample of rhythmicity and alliteration: dull and
disappointed; Christmas-candles-carols; piano promised never came to pass. It might have been
unintended by Plath, thought created an intensification of shapeless polylogic (in terms of Berman).
The feature appeared to be re-created in translation: соснові гілки, і свічки, і срібно-золоті
стрічки and, consequently, provides a fortunate rhythmic movement.
Finding: ST alienation variable 3 is re-expressed in translation with partial deformation;
prevailing is the tendency of destruction of the underlying network of signification by introducing in
the translated text words and specifiers which are avoided in the original.
3.4. I felt-NL example 4
Below is the next fragment to be discussed:
Figure 6: Fourth sample parallel markup
Discussion:
Meaning unit I felt very low of the variable 4 deciphers as I felt very depressed and dejected, and I
ran out of my vital energy. The sense is intensified by the meaning unit I felt now that all the
uncomfortable suspicions I had about myself were coming true, which reads as now is the time I have
to be honest with myself and admit that I got exhausted by the dynamics of my life and it seems that I
was slowing down, losing my primacy position. This was preceded by I had been unmasked […] by
Jay Cee herself structure, meaning It was high time I started to realize, I began to see clearly. Esther
had to be honest to her true self and face the reality, confess to herself. It echoes with NL 3 in which
the words signify the promises of Esther‘s young life of Esther which, in the majority of cases
occured to be unsatisfying.
Translation, in its turn, neglects original iconicity and moves from polysemy to monosemy, which
is a mode of clarification along with qualitative impoverishment. Translation of the original I felt very
low reads as following Мені було геть невесело. (word for word back translation: To me it was геть
(vernacular lexeme, untranslatable into English, missing in the original) not merrily). Thus, the
syntactically defined unit I felt very low is lost in translation.
Next, original meaning unit I felt now that all the uncomfortable suspicions I had about myself
were coming true, and I couldn’t hide the truth much longer is re-expressed in translation as я
відчувала, що справджуються всі мої неприємні передчуття щодо самої себе, й уже не могла
приховувати правду (word for word back translation I felt that are coming true all my unpleasant
premonitions about myself, and could not hide the truth).
Syntactically defined unit I felt now that is preserved in the translation.
Finding: ST variable 4 consists of two meaning units (defined syntactically and semantically);
one is lost, another is preserved in translation. Partial deformation is observed in terms of clarification
along with qualitative impoverishment.
3.5. I felt-NL example 5
Next, check Fig.7
Figure 7: Fifth sample of textness marking
Discussion:
In translation, this variable 5, as well as variable 4 witnesses the substitute of subjectival I felt into
objectival мені (to me), in such a way distorting the syntactically defined unit of the original.
Syntactically and semantically, this variable echoes with variable 3 (compare: I felt overstuffed and
dull and disappointed) which pvoves author‘s intentionally elaborated network. As for variable 5, the
wholicity of form and meaning is lost in translation. The translator re-accentuates the hidden
dimension, where ‗certain signifiers correspond to link up‘ (in Berman‘s terms) and, eventually,
destructs the underlying network of signification.
The original has the repetitious development with the stylistical effect of emotional climax I felt
dull and flat and full of shattered visions. The distribution of the corresponding lexical items of the
original is lost in translation Мені було нудно й буденно, усі надії вмирали в мене на очах (To me
was boring and ordinary, all hopes were dying on my eyes).
Apart from this, addited to translation punctuation mark rationalizes the most meaningful elements
of the prose, it annihilates the relations which prevail in the original between ordered and disordered
(dull and flat and full of shattered visions).
Finding: ST alienation variable 5 is re-expressed in translation with destruction of the underlying
network of signification by introducing in the translated text punctuation and eliminating I felt
construction from translation.
3.6. I felt-NL example 6
Now let us consider Fig. 8
Figure 8: Sixth sample of textness marking
Discussion:
The narrator accentuates the loss of the protagonist‘s character and willpower through the
adjectives limp and betrayed, which suffices to show exhaustion and fatigue, accompanied by the
shade of betrayal, driven from the context of Esther‘s growing alienation from her body by
emphasizing the process of skin change (typical for reptiles) and portraying the imaginary relief to be
free of the animal (inner beast); however, along with healing the body, the emptiness of the soul takes
it turn. The self-metaphorization with the skin, rather than the animal, margins Esther‘s self reception
as being the outsider, being betrayed and separated from the rest whole.
This variable has undergone deforming tendency in translation, first and foremost, the lexeme
limp, initially meaning weak, not strong enough,powerless, loosing control over your body, is
impoverished. The translation tends to impose the definite, which is, adopting Berman‘s ideas,
typical for novel translations. The translator adopts qualitative impoverishment and creates a new
image (absent in the original); she replaces signifying limp which is used repeatedly through the text
(for example, the allegory: 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). The
translator has chosen a word розмокла that initially denotes soaked, processed by water, submerged.
However, the syntactically defined unit I felt is preserved in translation.
Finding: ST alienation variable 6 is re-expressed in translation with destruction of the underlying
network of signification and qualitative impoverishment of iconic word limp.
3.7. I felt-NL example 7
Now let us turn our sights to Fig. 9:
Figure 9: Seventh sample of textness marking
Discussion:
This variable 7 is of interest, first and foremost, because of the syntactic structure preferred by
Sylvia Plath. As seen in previous variables, she tends to use I felt variable + alienation, the latter
expressed by means of adjectives (dull, devastated, etc. or/and a comparison with the particle like).
Meanwhile here, poetization of prose is framed by I felt + alienation, the syntactically defined unit of
which is presented via predominant noun-phrase (though preceded by a numeral one and adjective
big), i.e.: I felt + one big twitch of exhaustion.
The meaning unit adds up to the topoi of exhaustion and devastation. Metaphorized via twitch of
exhaustion, it intensifies physical and mental pang (as in a twitch of remorse). The applied to an entire
work ‗fresh‘ iconicity of Plath, is re-expressed in translation by means of a ‗fresh‘ coinage of the
translator почувалася тугим кавалком виснаження (I felt a tight chunk of exhaustion). The TT
word combination is alien and not typical to TT readers, which prompts the suggestion that the choice
was deliberate. To our mind, the decision is justified as it encompasses the complexity of the original
meaning unit so as to enhance the intended communicative effect on TT reader. This serves a vivid
example when the translator does not only re-express the intended original meaning, but re-creates the
author‘s estranged, postmodern mindset.
Finding: ST alienation variable 7 undergoes a number of transformations, which resulted in a
positive analytic of translation. Despite the fact it is distanced from the original in terms of ‗same
words usage‘ for adequate equivalency, translator preserved predominant noun-phrase in I felt
variable along with estranged metaphor (twitch of exhaustion).
3.8. I felt-NL example 8
Next in the raw is Fig. 10:
Figure 10: Eighth passage
Discussion:
ST variable 8 discloses the main heroine's self perception as miniscule being as confronted to the
other rest. Meaning unit I felt myself shrink to a small black dot against intensifies her enduring
position on the social margins. Instead of feeling harmony with the world around, Esther‘s self-image
suggests an abiding sense of blurred identification I felt like a hole in the ground ventilates the burden
of socialising experiences and belittled self-awareness in the circumstances the heroine lives in, dark
and gloomy – Esther is convinced.
The target text exemplifies positive analyticity of translation and leaves original ‗unspoken‘ to
remain unfolded in the translation. The ST reader is left guessing what might it be to feel like a hole in
the ground, as, fortunately, is the TT reader почувалася, ніби яма в землі (to feel as a hole in the
ground).
Finding: ST alienation NL 8 is liberated in translation, which mobilizes the shapeless polylogic
of Plath‘s literary prose.
3.9. I felt-NL example 9
Succeeding Fig. 11 to assess:
Figure 11: Ninth passage
Discussion:
Meaning unit I felt too dull to think up the excuse contains a signifier dull which is avoided in
translation я була не в змозі вигадати поважну причину (I was not able to trump up a good reason).
Proceeding in the translation, there is a combination Після вчорашнього важкого вечора (After
yesterday‘s difficult evening) which, although renders the meaning, destructs the network of
significance. The word dull constitutes a particular network, it witnesses the presence of a particular
pattern (see NL 2,3,5,9). Another co-signifier is limp which is manifested throughout the texture, but
more frequently finds itself outside the realm of I felt NL and remains systematic in I hate NL.
In addition, the translator combines ennoblement and qualitative impoverishment and substitutes
the original chain of words for the glove, the handkerchief, the umbrella, the notebook I forgot with
по забуту рукавичку чи носовичок, чи парасольку, чи сумочку (for the forgotten glove (used with
diminutive) or handkerchief (used with diminutive), or umbrella (used with diminutive), or purse
(used with diminutive). The choice of diminutive suffixation along with the substitution of original
notebook with the lady‘s hangback in translation belittles the narration and contradicts to Sylvia
Plath‘s worldview; these ‗girlish stereotypes‘ are genuinely the prejudices she has been fighting
against during the whole of her life.
This observation of ours is supported by the reviewer of the analysed translation. The reviewer
concludes that the translated text nurtures the ambition to ‗shift the text into a different dimension‘,
the translator desires to make the narrative more tender, innocent, frail, fragile, girlish, so to say.
Esther is not tender and far from romantic, she is portrayed pretty cynical and even sarcastic. She is a
decadent, appealing to self-indulgence, imbalanced and unstable, rather than sensitive and empatic
[11].
Finding: ST alienation NL 9 is re-expressed in translation and is negatively deformed. In
addition, it banalizes the underlying significance and debilitates the content of Sylvia Plath‘s mental
act of liberation over suffocating ‗normal for woman‘.
3.10. I felt-NL example 10
Upcoming piece to inspect:
Figure 12: Tenth instance
Discussion:
Meaning unit I felt dreadfully inadequate of NL 10 indicates Esthers feeling of insecurity. The
other meaning unit The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn’t thought about it
connects abstract now and always. Semantically, this chain of opposition is preserved in translation.
Syntactically defined unit is lost. Compare original I felt dreadfully inadequate. The trouble was, I
had been inadequate all along and translated я почулася страшенно нездібною. Прикрість
полягала в тому, що такою я була ціле життя (I felt terribly incapable. The
disappointment/trouble consisted in that like this I was whole life).
The translator clarifies the feature Esther verbalizes as inadequate and opts for the corresponding,
contextually driven, нездібна, meaning incapable, lacking appropriate skills. Such a choice bears the
destructive tendency as it does not recompose the signifier (I felt dreadfully) inadequate of the
original narrative.
Finding: ST alienation NL 10 is re-expressed in translation and is negatively deformed. It
clarifies the underlying significance and omits syntactically defined unit.
4. Acknowledgements
The project has been carried out within the complex academic topic ―Application of modern
technologies for optimization of information processes in natural language‖ at Lviv Polytechnic
National University. Illustrated is the initial stage of the project which opts for the employment of
modern digital tools within the usage of parallel translation corpora in quality assessment of translated
product
5. Conclusions
This article explores how I felt-NL of Sylvia Plath is translated into Ukrainian. Necessary to note
that the current analysis does not exceed the realm of I felt+alienation NL and should not be
considered evaluative in relation to the whole translation product.
In a lucid way, we (a) discussed what comprises I felt-NL; (b) analysed how it is translated into
Ukrainian by Olha Liubarska; (c) assessed the translated product on the basis of Antoine Berman‘s
analytic of translation (negative and positive). Juxtaposing ST alienation NL with their translated
variants enabled defining translation tendency. This resulted in argumentation that I felt-NL is
significant for Plath‘s narrative of The Bell Jar because it is framed within main heroine flashbacks
from the past and encapsulates her alienated self-identification. In the majority of cases this novelistic
meaning unit (defined semantically and syntactically) has been exposed to negative analytic of
translation with prevailing tendencies of clarification, rationalization, destruction of underlying
network of significance. There are, though, bright examples of positive analytic of translation.
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