Translation of Allusions as a Problem of Cultural Transfer (Based on the Novel Shame by Salman Rushdie)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46991/TSTP/2025.5.2.058

Keywords:

allusion, cultural transfer, intertextuality, intertextual references, postcolonial literature

Abstract

This article examines the translation of allusions as a key problem of cultural transfer within literary texts, focusing on the Armenian and Russian translations of Salman Rushdie’s novel Shame. The analysis is carried out using intertextual, comparative, and linguacultural methods, which allows us to identify the main strategies for conveying intertextual references. Allusion is a multi-faceted stylistic device that involves the activation of phenomenological precedents relating to literature, mythology, the Bible, history and political events. The challenges of translating allusions concerning Indian mythology and the very complicated political and cultural context for Pakistan necessitate more extralinguistic competence on the part of a reader and the translator. It has been established that adequate transmission of allusions is possible only with a comprehensive approach combining linguistic and cultural-historical knowledge. The results can be useful in the theory and practice of translation, as well as in studies of intertextuality and linguacultural studies.

Author Biographies

  • Narine Harutyunyan, Yerevan State University

    D.Sc., Full Professor at the Department of English for Cross-Cultural Communication, Yerevan State University, Armenia; head of the  Methodological Council of the Faculty of  European Languages and  Communication; member of Scientific Council of the Faculty of European Languages and Communication; member of Armenian  Association for the  Study of  English. Her research interests include translation studies, linguistic culturology (linguoculturology), cross-cultural communication and linguistic conceptology.

  • Armine Khachatryan, Yerevan State University

    PhD, Associate professor at the Department of English for Cross-Cultural Communication, Faculty of European Languages and Communication, Yerevan State University, Armenia. Her research interests include practical grammar, practical phonetics, phonetic synesthesia, stylistics, conceptology, business communication.

References

Baker, Mona. 2018. In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London: Routledge.

Baldick, Chris. 2008. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (3rd Edition). New York: Oxford University Press.

Barthes, Roland. 1989. Izbrannye raboty: Semiotika. Poetika [Selected Works: Semiotics. Poetics]. Moscow: Progress.

Ben-Porat, Ziva. 1976. “The Poetics of Literary Allusion.” PTL: A Journal for Descriptive Poetics and Theory of Literature 1: 105–128.

Bloom, Harold. 1975. A Map of Misreading. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Britannica. n.d. “Allusion.” Britannica.com. Accessed March 5, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/art/allusion

Cuddon, John Anthony. 2013. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 5th ed. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Cushman, Stephen, Greene, Roland (eds.). 2012. Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Hylen, Susan. 2005. Allusion and Meaning in John 6. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Ilyashenko, Tatyana Stepanovna. 2014. “Intertekstual'nost' kak kategoriya khudozhestvennogo diskursa” [Intertextuality as a Category of Artistic Discourse]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta [Vestnik of Moscow University]. Seriya 9. Filologiya 3: 178–185.

Irwin, William. 2001. What Is an Allusion? Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Iseminger, Gary (ed.). 1992. Intention and Interpretation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6245.00026

Kiose, Maria Ivanovna. 2002. Lingvokognitivnie aspekti alliuzii: na materiale zagolovkov angliyskikh i russkikh zhurnal’nykh statey [Linguistic and Cognitive Aspects of Allusion: Based on the Headlines of English and Russian Journal Articles]. PhD dissertation. Moscow.

Lennon, Paul. 2004. Allusions in the Press: An Applied Linguistic Study. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Leppihalme, Ritva. 1997. Culture Bumps: An Empirical Approach to the Translation of Allusions. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Meyer, Hermann Henry Ber. 1968. The Poetics of Quotation in the European Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Perri, Carmela. 1978. “On Alluding.” Poetics 7 (3): 289–307. Accessed June 11, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-422X(78)90030-x

Rushdie, Salman. 1983. Shame. London: Jonathan Cape.

Rushdie, Salman. 2000. “In Defense of the Novel, Yet Again.” In Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992–2002, 66–74. London: Jonathan Cape.

Rushdie, Salman. 2020. Amot [Shame]. Translated into Armenian by Lusine Karapetyan. Yerevan: Antares.

Rushdie, Salman. 2023. Styd [Shame]. Translated into Russian by Igor Bagrov. Moscow: Corpus.

Taivalkoski-Shilov, Kristiina. 2006. La Tierce Main: Le discours rapporté dans les traductions françaises de Fielding au XVIIIe siècle. Arras: Artois Presses Université.

Tuhareli, Maya Dmitrievna. 1984. Alluziya v sisteme khudozhestvennogo proizvedeniya [The Allusion in the System of a Literary Work]. PhD diss., Tbilisi. Accessed June 18, 2025. https://cheloveknauka.com/v/215946/d?#?page=1

Wheeler, Michael. 1979. The Art of Allusion in Victorian Fiction. London: Macmillan.

Wilpert, Gero von. 1969. Sachwörterbuch der Literatur. 5th ed. Stuttgart: Verlag.

Downloads

Published

2025-12-20

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2(10) (2025)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Narine Harutyunyan, Armine Khachatryan

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Harutyunyan, Narine, and Armine Khachatryan. 2025. “Translation of Allusions As a Problem of Cultural Transfer (Based on the Novel Shame by Salman Rushdie)”. Translation Studies: Theory and Practice 5 (2(10): 58-77. https://doi.org/10.46991/TSTP/2025.5.2.058.

Similar Articles

1-10 of 68

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.