Aldous Huxley’s Futuristic World from the Perspective of Its Translation Properties

Abstract

The article focuses on A. Huxley's famous novel "Brave New World" and the two versions of its translation (Russian and Armenian). The aim of the analysis is identification of linguistic means specifying A. Huxley's futuristic world, the so-called World State of the XXVI century (AD 2540), a world, where psychological manipulation predominates as a method of creating a totalitarian society, its dictatorship subjugation and people’s successful standardization. The next step is the determination of communicative/functional properties of the ST and two target texts (Russian and Armenian) in order to reveal how the linguistic manifestation of the author’s worldview is transmitted into a different cultural domain to become cohesive with a different target audience. To transmit exactly A. Huxley’s futuristic world vision into a TL the translator should keep closely to the author’s philosophical conceptualization of this world and the psychological manipulation principles the authorities employ to achieve the expected impact on the fictional society.

Keywords

• dystopia
• futuristic world
• psychological manipulation
• communicative/functional properties
• transformation