A Study Of The Translation Of The Handmaid's Tale With The Focus On Its Power Discourse

Margaret Atwood,a famous Canadian woman writer,is a typical postmodern intellectual writer.Her works not only grow in her own experiences and perceptual knowledge,but also come from postmodern theories,various books and a lot of researches.The Handmaid's Tale,her magnum opus,is such a distopia work that contains rich postmodern elements and implies the author's profound view of politics,in which power is the characteristic can't be ignored.In light of Foucault's theory of power,this article will discuss the power discourse of The Handmaid's Tale and its reproduction in translation from three aspectsChapter One focuses on power's control over life.By analyzing Gilead's discipline of single body and control of mass population as well as handmaid's collective survival and revolt,the power conveyed in life politics is revealed.Insufficient attention to the context lead to some mistranslations.The excessive use of ancient Chinese prose and four-character fixed phrases weakens the expression of the power.And the reproduction of language play seems to be a reversal of the order of rhetoric and accuracy.Chapter Two focuses on space,the metaphor for power.By analyzing the political nature of space and the its effect as a tool of discipline and revolt,the power conveyed in space politics is revealed.Inadequate understanding on both the meaning and historical background of some involved culture-loaded words in the original again weakens the expression of power.While the representation of texts with different style like slang and the reproduction of language play here are quite remarkable.Chapter Three focuses on discourse,the characterization of power.By analyzing the discourse privilege of Gilead's ruling class,the handmaid's discourse's being muzzled and their discourse revolt,the implied sarcasm in the quotes or adaptions of the Bible is noted and the power conveyed in the original is revealed.Translator's lack of certain knowledge of classical Western works leads to the failure of power expression.We believe that power discourse is the main character of The Handmaid's Tale.An accurate and vivid translation requires translator's knowledge about the implied historical and cultural background of the text and the hidden meaning of culture-loaded words based on a full understanding of the context.Besides,a close attention to different styles and rhetorical devices such as sarcasm is also required.