Translating intertextuality in "The handmaid's tale" by Margaret Atwood

Abstract

The paper analyzes cases of intertextuality in "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood and studies possible means of their translation into Russian. The research demonstrates how intertextual links in the original novel find their way into the source text. This study aims to analyze the types of intertexts in the novel, their functions, as well as the effect they produce, and to identify matches or mismatches between the specific functions and pragmatic potential of the intertexts introduced by the writer, and the specific functions and pragmatic potential of corresponding translated fragments in order to pin down translation challenges found in the novel and ways to tackle them. The author's intent is known to be one of the main features of any fictional work and can be conveyed at different language levels and with specific means corresponding to those levels. Intertexts, as shown in this article, can serve as a means to embody the author's intent and are challenging for a translator who needs to recreate the pragmatic potential of the source text using the target language. Interpretation and translation of intertexts in fiction is an issue that fell into the area of scientific expertise only in the second half of the 20th century and has not yet received comprehensive coverage. This fact complicates translators' work at the same time raising its relevance since no single strategy for translating intertexts has been established yet. The scientific novelty hereof stems from efforts aimed to find the right strategy to reproduce intertexts in fiction translation in terms of their artistic and ideological originality.