Poetics of Imagery in the Novel “Animal Farm” by G. Orwell

The twentieth century was marked by the formation of totalitarian states. Literature responded to this with the emergence of dystopian writings that shed light on authoritarianism and debunked the myth of creating an ideal society. In particular, the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union was the subject of concern of the English writer, G. Orwell, who attempted to analyze K. Marx’s theory with the focus on the organization of animal life in the satiric novel Animal Farm. The aim of the article is to identify the features of a fi gurative system at the level of all types of imagery in the novel Animal Farm by G. Orwell and to distinguish the specifi city of their functions, taking into account the author’s worldview in terms of criticizing certain social and political purposes and realities. In the article the attempt to examine the poetics of imagery in the novel Animal Farm by G. Orwell is made concerning its diff erent types: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and kinesthetic. Each type of imagery is employed to highlight certain traits of the main characters and their attitude to the events with the focus on the author’s vision. Visual imagery enables the writer to create portrait characteristics of the main characters, which resemble real historical fi gures. The auditory imagery complements the appearance of the characters, actualizing their true animal nature with conveying causal links between characters’ deeds and events. Olfactory and gustatory types of imagery are not so common, however, serve to transfer the fullness of the picture of the external and internal structure of the farm, highlighting past and future events that cover animal life. Kinesthetic imagery depicts movements and responses of the animals that symbolize their attitude to the proclamation and establishment of the animal republic and shape behavioral patterns in a totalitarian regime. Some types of fi gurative system overlap so that, on the one hand, it hinders their classifi cation, but on the other hand – provides the opportunity to comprehend a diversifi ed picture of the novel in terms of the author’s worldview. G. Orwell employs various types of imagery to create full-fl edged images of the characters that are compared to those of the Soviet society, portraying their common features in appearance and behaviour. This enables the writer to develop a plot in stages, commenting on changes that took place in the society in the course of establishing the totalitarian regime on the terrain of former USSR.