Ангел Игов

Bulgarian poet Dimcho Debelyanov and renowned modernist Ezra Pound independently used an epigraph from a common literary source in a poem by French symbolist Albert Samain. The paper discusses this coincidence with regard to two basic functions of epigraph as paratext: to broaden the interpretation of the quoting work, and to perform rhetorical gestures. Through an epigraph-focused interpretation of both works, the paper outlines the capacity of literary epigraphs to produce complex intertextual links, exhibiting valence both inward, i.e. within the own text, and outward, reaching to other texts and the broad field of intertextuality.

The article examines the translation of novel titles containing quotations from the Shakespearean corpus. The quotation title is considered as both paratext and intertext. Translators’ approaches to the rendering of titles with Shakespearean intertext in different target languages are compared, with a particular focus on Bulgarian examples. The aim of the study is to search for characteristic solutions in translations that deserve to be discussed. The article proposes and problematizes three translation strategies: the search for dynamic equivalence, neutralization, and compensation. The collected data, which do not claim to be exhaustive, are presented in tables, followed by analytical comments. Rather than presupposing conclusions, the comparative analysis interprets the data as they are.