What Can the Intertextual Paradigm Yield to Translation Studies – An East European Perspective

The aim of the paper is to survey theorizations of intertextuality as an ontological feature of translation, a line of thinking well represented in the East European translation studies as well as to show the purposes this paradigm has served in translational reflection. I investigate the concept(s) and applications thereof, and trace the interrelations between the ideas of various scholars. Intertextuality is shown to have served the following ends: locating translation among other forms of communication, explaining the mode of existence of translation, reclaiming for it the status of a rightful literary activity and defending it from charges of parasitism, probing translations’ interactions with other texts, constructing interdisciplinary approaches. Last but not least, intertextuality has recently been integrated into the very model of the translation process.