Katia Manofa: The Problem of Intertextuality in Translation

Katia Manofa

Every literary work is situated in the middle of a network of intertextual relations. This network consists of the text’s relation to the genre it is placed in, any references to other cultural texts, any presence of another text in it, and other works by the same writer. A literary text is usually tightly knit to the culture that produced it, which may present problems for a translator attempting to rewrite the text in another language for another culture. It is believed that translators should bear in mind two elements of intertextuality: intextual, (a quotation, reference, hint etc.) and outer textual (in the outer cultural space). More here