THE FINDINGS OF MARIA HABLEVYCH IN SHAKESPEARE STUDIES IN THE LIGHT OF NARRATOLOGY

Abstract

The current paper seeks to present an insightful re-reading of the works authored by the contemporary Ukrainian Shakespearean scholar, practicing translator, editor, and critic M. Hablevych (born 1950) through the prism of narratology. The focus is on one of the main topics of her scientifi c research – Shakespeare’s legacy in the light of his life and works. Methodological tenets of transgeneric narratology (P. Huhn, M. Kraan, E. Müller-Zettelmann) and reception aesthetics (R. Ingarden, W. Iser, R. Barth) comprise the ground for the research in the paper. The ultimate goal of the paper is to apply narratological concepts to the critical and theoretical works of Maria Hablevych as well as to analyze the Ukrainian translations of Shakespeare’s Sonnets by D. Pavlychko (1998) and N. Butuk (2011) against their background. It is argued that the “Author” concept as regarded by the multifaceted agent partially correlates with the “Author-function” by M. Foucault, fulfi lling the functions of narratorhood (M.–L. Ryan). Yet, it reaches beyond the traditional narratological understanding of the notion of Author. By applying the critical-theoretical method, the method of narratological analysis, the elements of interpretive textual analysis, and translation studies analysis, the article looks into the peculiarities of narratological categories reproduction in the Ukrainian translations. The latter bears signifi cance for the adequate reproduction of the ideological and semantic unity of the Sonnets. The paper reveals various degrees of their rendering, with the version by N. Butuk being considered the most successful and closest to the multifaceted agent’s interpretation.

Keywords

• multifaceted agent
• shakespeare
• author-function
• author’s voice
• heterodiegetic narrator
• homodiegetic narrator
• mediation
• point of focus
• narration