Intertextuality in literary translation

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INTERTEXTUALITY IN LITERARY TRANSLATION

Nyamestuk Miroslava

Нямещук Мирослава

Науковий керівник -канд. філол. наук, доцент Цепенюк Т. О.

Сучасна література може перекреслити всі відомі парадигми літературознавства. Вона непередбачувана і багатошарова. Тому таке явище, як інтертекстуальність набуває нового значення. Його вивчення складне, проте дуже цікаве. У перекладознавстві дослідження інтертекстуальності ведуться представниками багатьох шкіл і напрямів на різних методологічних засадах. Адже перед тим, як стати всесвітньовідомим, твір проходить через переклад. У статті розглядається визначення, коротка історія та стратегії відтворення засобів інтертекстуальності в українському перекладі творів Террі Пратчетта - англійського письменника в жанрі фентезі.

Ключові слова: інтертекстуальність, переклад, художній переклад, алюзія, цитата, ремінісценція.

The modern literature can cross all the known paradigms of literary study. It is unpredictable and multi-layered. Therefore, a phenomenon of intertextuality gets a new meaning. To investigate it is complex, but very interesting. The research on intertextuality on various methodological principles was carried out by representatives of many schools and trends. After all, before becoming world-famous, the work goes through translation. The article deals with the definition, brief history and strategies of conveying of intertextuality means in the Ukrainian translation of the works by Terry Pratchett, an English writer in the fantasy genre.

Keywords: intertextuality, translation, literary translation, allusion, quotation, reminiscence.

The modem world erases the borders between countries, cultures, and people. Therefore, there are more and more alike texts, so, it's not an easy task for the writers to surprise their readership. Intertextuality can be very handy here. For writers this is an alternative way to present the plot, create extra-text, “a story in the story”. But for translators, this method may provoke lots of difficulties. That is why the study of intertextuality in the context of Ukrainian translation is relevant and can provide new approaches to the working algorithms with intertextual units. The aim of this article is to investigate existing approaches to the intertextuality and to highlight principal methods of its rendering into Ukrainian.

Firstly, let's have a look at its meaning and history. The word intertextuality derives from the Latin intertexto, meaning to `mingle while weaving'. According to Collins dictionary intertextuality in literature is “the ways in which texts are interrelated and meanings that arise out of this. The term intertextuality refers to the relationships or links that may be found among different books or texts. This type of intertextuality is usually understood to be chronological [6]”. Like modern literary and cultural theory itself, the origins of intertextuality can be traced back to the 20th-century linguistics.

The term intertextuality was first introduced in literary linguistics by Julia Kristeva in the late 1960s. In her researches J. Kristeva moved from traditional notions of the author's influences and the text's sources. She claimed that everything, from table settings to poems, is constituted by the manner in which they transform earlier signifying patterns. A literary work, then, is not simply the product of a single author, but of his/her relationship to other texts (both written and spoken), and to the structure of language itself.

A Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) played a major role in the understanding of intertextuality, by emphasizing the systematic features of a language, he established the relational nature of meaning and texts. Another literary theorist who had a major influence on the theory of intertextuality was the Russian literary theorist and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975). He emphasized the relation between an author and his work, the work and its readers, and the relation of all three to the social and historical forces that surround them. To sum up, “by combining Saussurean and Baktinian theories, J. Kristeva produced the first enunciation of intertextual theory [12]”.

In Ukraine, intertextuality in the literature was investigated by V. Shevchenko, R. Chornovol-Tkachenko, N. Holikova. In translation studies this notion, as well as its types, was studied by L. Andreiko., M. Vorobiova, A. Kamianets, O. Yarema, N. Hlinka, and other scholars.

Nowadays the approach to intertextuality in the context of literature is quite interesting. As it was mentioned in `Inevitability of arts from inter-textuality' by Mohammad Khosravi Shakib: “A text becomes unique in so far as it represents a “new” but perhaps only slightly distinct, combination of intertexts, a multi-faceted and multivalent interaction of one text with every text within the literary matrix [10]”. For instance, a single character, might be read as the product of multiple intertextualities with other characters from previous works, each of which is the product of other myriad intertextualities.

As any translator, one way or another, faces with intertextuality (intentionally or accidentally), it's important to mention that different linguists worked on the classifications of intertextuality, and also on the ways of rendering intertextual figures into the target language. They are: G. Genette [5, c. 15], P. Torop [11, c. 33-45], N. Fateeva [4], G. Denisova [2]. Basically, the intertextual figures include: allusion, quotation, reminiscence, centon, parody, plagiarism, stylization, pastiche, refrain, etc. As we use Terry Pratchett's stories as the material for our research, we'll look closer at allusion, quotation, reminiscence (these are top three figures in his texts). The intertextuality of T. Pratchett's works is expressed through the rich use of elements from fairy tales, mythology, comparisons, and especially allusions. Allusion is one of the specific types of intertextuality and is a visible or invisible reference to another text [8, p. 156].

It is believed, that if a reader does not see the vertical context (i.e. allusions, quotations, realities) behind the horizontal context, he/she can not get complete information about the literary work, to understand its ideological and artistic richness [3, c. 130]. After detecting an intertextual unit, the translator has two options: literature history terry pratchett

1) to leave it unchanged and allow the recipient to investigate it independently, or 2) to explain the incomprehensible impregnation in some way. Let's consider the bfollowing example:

If you had told him that there were children starving in Africa he would have been flattered that you'd noticed [7, p. 84]. - Якби ви в цей момент вирішили нагадати йому, що в Африці голодують діти, Вороному було б справді приємно, дякую, що помітили [1, с. 172-173].

The whole phrase is a mean of the comic (the perception of hunger as good news, not a problems, or trouble), and helps to identify an allusion to Hunger - one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, which is described in the Bible, the Revelation of John the theologian. As the biblical texts are known among Ukrainian readers, translators didn't have to look for a specific tactic of its reproduction. Also, the mentioning of famine in Africa suggests the true nature of this character. In addition, later in the text, the character signs for receiving the parcel with his real name, which is something like “холод”. So this tactic of traditional translation with semantic calque is quite justified.

“Message for you, sir”.

FOR ME?

“Yes, sir. ... It's a message”.

DELIVER IT, THEN.

“It's this, sir. Ahem. Come and See [7, p. 104]”.

- Вам повідомлення, добродію.

МЕНІ?

- Так, добродію. ... Лише повідомлення.

ТО ПОВІДОМЛЯЙ ЖЕ.

- Ну воно таке, добродію: “Прийди і подивися [1, с. 211]”.

One of the most important phrases in the book of Revelation is quoted (in all meanings) as a regular courier message. Here, translators use a less common translation of the Bible by P. Kulish, because it is closer in form to the English Bible, which is quoted in the book by the authors.

Let's look at one more interesting example of intertextuality.

It was going to be a dark and stormy night [7, p. 2].

Насувалася темна і грозова ніч [1, с. 17].

Далі:

It wasn't a dark and stormy night [7, p. 6].

Це не була темна і грозова ніч [1, с. 22].

This is a very famous phrasee from the book “Paul Clifford”, written in 1830 by Edward Bulwer-Lytton to convey the mood, the tones of the composition; to contrast the allusion used to the work to which it refers (“It was a dark and stormy night”). The authors beat this phrase several times in different sections of the book. It is one of the most famous clichйs of English literature (like Ukrainian “Надворі весна вповні”, or “Світає ...”). So, in order to render this intertextual component translators used the clarifying translation (footnotes).

Another example from the other book is:

A rock on the head may be quite sentimental, ... but diamonds are a girl's best friends [9, p. 151].

Unfortunately, there is no Ukrainian translation yet. But we can easily identify intertextuality means here. The phrase diamonds are a girl's best friend is a quote from the movie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (1953), in which Marilyn Monroe performed a song under the same title. T. Pratchett used this reminiscence to show the similarity of the fates of two characters of different works. Preservation of intertextuality in this case is necessary, because readers' understanding of the character's image depends on the recognition of the phrase. The traditional translation is used to show Rubin, a singer in T. Pratchett's novel “Moving Pictures” as a collective image of famous singers of the first half of the 20th century, such as Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich.

Having analyzed all the material above we can conclude, that: intertextuality is a difficult and interesting phenomenon in the translation studies. There are different approaches toward it, thus you should look for the material and explanation according to your topic of research. In the Ukrainian translation of the novels by T. Pratchett the translators mostly used traditional translation, semantic calque, clarifying translation/compensation (explanatory translation). We see prospects for further researches in deeper analysis of strategies used to convey intertextual means into Ukrainian and the creation of the set algorithm of their implementation.

Literature

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