“UNKNOWN” QUOTATIONS IN R. ZELAZNY’S NOVEL “CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS” AS A PROBLEM OF TRANSLATION INTERPRETATION

Abstract

Precedent statements are an important intertextual phenomenon that makes it possible to include the work in the body of already existing texts but to actualize the game with the readers’ expectations. A quotation has the potential to perform many functions: it can serve as a direct reference to the author or a specific work, it can imply a broad cultural outlook of the reader, it can form the internal context of the work, as if these quotations were taken from texts invented by the characters themselves, etc. The aim of the article is to analyze the precedent statements in the novel of R. Zelazny “Creatures of Light and Darkness”. The extensive use of different types and levels of precedent phenomena characterizes this fiction novel as a whole. Three Russian translations of R. Zelazny’s novel were used as illustrative material. The method of research is contrastive semantic-syntactic analysis. A number of quotations in the novel by R. Zelazny’s novel initially assumes some “understatement”, when the reader either has to have a broad outlook in order to recognize the reference to the precedent text, or must try to guess what it is about. It is especially interesting when the source of the quotation is unknown and unrecognizable, so there is an interpretive lacuna that serves as a challenge to the reader. Translators look for ways to convey and simultaneously compensate for this reticence by various means, including, in some cases, eliminating the reticence itself (e. g. by introducing a reference to pretexts, although this does not exist in the original work). The results allow us to identify the translation that is closest to the original in pragmatic terms, as well as to conclude that there is some continuity in the translations: while the earlier translations are significantly different, the later translation uses some of its predecessors’ solutions.