Women’s Inner Worlds and Translation Transformations in “Bygone Days” and “Night and Day”

Abstract

This article analyzes the inner psychological worlds of female characters in works by Abdulla Qodiriy and Abdulhamid Cho‘lpon and their transformations in English and Russian translations. Through the characters of Kumush, Zebi, Miryoqub’s wife, and Qurbonbibi, the study examines early twentieth-century Uzbek women’s spiritual experiences, social roles, and the tension between personal agency and social constraints. A corpus-based analysis of one hundred fifty-six textual segments identifies changes in interior monologues, indirect speech acts, gender markers, and cultural presuppositions during translation. These patterns reveal systematic shifts in meaning, pragmatics, and cultural framing that directly influence reader interpretation and ideological positioning. The findings demonstrate that local translators frequently soften gender oppression through domestication strategies, whereas foreign translators prioritize foreignization to preserve the critical force of the source text. The article proposes six transformation strategies for preserving psychological depth in literary translation and evaluates their effectiveness for maintaining cultural authenticity and target language accessibility.