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The article analyzes the mechanisms through which fictional realia, also known as quasi-realia or irrealia (special lexical units that describe various aspects of a fictional world: its geography, ethnography, social political structure, material culture, etc.), create new cultural memes. Despite the controversial status of memetics, the concept of meme as a sustainable and self-replicating unit of information became widespread among various researchers. However, very little research has been carried out to draw connections between memes and fictional realia. Furthermore, few researchers pay attention to the study of fictional realia as a whole. We choose the genre of dystopia due to its prognostic and preventive functions. Trying to warn the reader about a future that is both undesirable and frightening to the vast majority of humanity, the author “infects” the reader with different ideas, which proliferate from the host’s mind and “infect” more and more people. «1984» by George Orwell, one of the most prominent dystopian novels of the twentieth century, is a perfect example of such proliferation of ideas: the concepts introduced by George Orwell became an integral part of various cultures and languages. The analysis of various headlines and quotes from English articles demonstrates how fictional realia propagate and assimilate in real culture and real language.

The article discusses the translation of fictional realia motivated by non-fictional lexical units (as opposed to neologisms coined by writers of fiction). Fictional realia are understood as a special kind of lexical units that denote objects, concepts, and phenomena specific to a fictional world. The article attempts to draw connections between the degree of realism of a fictional world and the number of fictional realia motivated by non-fictional lexical units that are present in the text. Motivation by non-fictional lexical units is seen as a condition which makes it possible to translate fictional realia using ready-made equivalents. However, it is argued that the possibility to translate realia using the aforementioned equivalents does not make the translator’s task any easier. Conversely, this condition can present an obstacle, since the most obvious translation is not necessarily the most precise one. Translation of this kind of fictional realia involves a deep understanding of the role that a particular unit plays in the context of its fictional world. “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro, which can be considered an example of a realistic dystopian novel, is used as the material for the study.

The article explores creation of new fictional realia as a translation technique. Fictional realia are defined as a special kind of linguistic realia, also known as quasirealia or irrelia, which describes various aspects of fictional worlds: flora and fauna, everyday life, social and political structure, etc. New realia creation involves incorporation of new lexical units in a translated text, which may remain semantically connected with the original realia and its referent or eliminate the connection completely. When the new realia preserve the connection with the original lexical units and their referents, we observe the creation of a new realia-word, which may be categorized as an attempt to redesignate the original realia, rather than a direct translation. This type of realia creation is somewhat similar to modulation, but differs from it due to the impossibility to establish direct logical links, such as “part and whole”, “cause and effect”, etc. Elimination of the aforementioned connections leads to the creation of a new realia-object, the translator’s own invention, which is absent is the original text and the corresponding fictional world. Creation of a new realia-word may resemble adaptation, but it does not necessarily share the same goal. In both cases, creation of new realia is a creative process, which is heavily dependent on the translator’s personality, their own vision. Creation of new realia is demonstrated through the analysis of the translations of fictional realia from “We” by Y. Zamyatin, “Brave New World” by A. Huxley, and “1984” by G. Orwell.

The article explores adaptation as a means of rendering fictional realia. Fictional realia (also known as quasi-realia and irrealia) are understood as a special kind of linguistic realia (culture-specific items) that exist within the genre of speculative fiction. These lexical units describe various aspects of fictional worlds: flora, fauna, everyday life, social and political structure, etc. Adaptation in general is defined as a specific form of intercultural and interlingual mediation that relies heavily on capabilities and necessities of a target audience. Unlike regular translation, adaptation does not necessarily strive to preserve formal and, in some cases, semantic features of the original text. Adaption can be used for different purposes: to make a text more comprehensible to a target audience, to influence a reader in a specific way, etc. When it comes to rendering fictional realia, adaptation can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, it can be defined as adaptation of fictional objects, concepts, and phenomena to reality (when fictional realia are replaced by their real counterparts). And secondly, it can be understood as linguacultural adaptation that is conditioned by cultural and linguistic differences between an original and a target audience. The article primarily focuses on the second type of fictional realia adaptation. The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood are used as source material for the study. The article draws connections between fictional realia adaptation and creation of new fictional realia (a means of rendering fictional realia that can be defined as either giving a new name to an existing fictional realia or introduction of a completely new fictional realia).