TIME GAP IN THE FORMATION OF THE SUPERTEXTS OF A CULTURE BETWEEN ITS REPRESENTATIVES AND HOLDERS OF OTHER CULTURES (AS EXEMPLIFIED BY THE LONDON TEXT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE)

Abstract

Taking the London text of the English literature as an example, the author of the present article points out the asynchronous formation of the fundamental texts of a particular culture by its representatives and the representatives of other cultures. This results in the latter sharing false stereotypes and myths about the source culture and causes translation difficulties. The article looks into the causes of such asynchronous conceptualization of the real world – in particular, translating written sources required for the formation of the literary canon and supertexts constructed on its basis takes time, and one cannot be sure that the translated sources will appear equally wide-spread in the target culture. The article also studies the ideal images of London peculiar to the London texts of nonEnglish literatures. However, the article does not postulate the non-conceivable nature of the supertexts of another culture, but rather points out certain difficulties in their reconstruction, which is achieved via stepby-step assimilation of foreign literary traditions and models. Along with this, the article dwells on the principal constituents of Englishness, which is viewed through the prism of London as the civilizationforming factor.