TRANSLATING AN INTERTEXT FROM ENGLISH INTO RUSSIAN (BASED ON THE NOVEL BY M. TWAIN “THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN”)

Abstract

The article investigates the issue of intertextuality in a literary work. The aim is to determine the variability of the ways to transfer an intertext from one language into another. The paper focuses on the patterns of an intertext formation based on the mock “Hamlet’s soliloquy” in the novel by M. Twain “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and its seven translations into Russian. The results demonstrate that one translator adopted the pattern to omit the intertext (A. Muravyeva) while other translators compiled the intertext from the lines picked out from several Shakespearean plays or used the existing translations of the original Hamlet’s monologue. Translation strategies displayed the similar compiling procedure from the numerous Russian translations of the Shakespearean plays or combined their own more or less literal and free translation of the lines. R. Braude and S. Il'in were more instrumental in the former (compilation), and N. Daruzes - in the latter (translation proper). The line-picking strategy requires scrupulous work to perform an extremely difficult translation task of conveying the author’s message and is, therefore, more complex.