‘Translating metaphor in literary texts: an intertextual approach’

The paper approaches the translation of metaphor in literature from an intertextual perspective not widely used in literary or translation studies. The paper argues for the value of Lemke's semantically-based theory of intertextuality (1995) as a framework for the analysis of metaphor for literary translation purposes and for orienting metaphor translation choices. The value of the Lemkean framework lies in its focus on meaning and the intertextual environment: the meaning potential of metaphor can be systematised in three functionally-based categories (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004), each with an intertextual dimension. Adopting a broad view of metaphor, and illustrated with reference to English language versions of the metaphorically challenging short stories by Italian writer Giovanni Verga (1880; 1884), the analysis points out the advantages of considering metaphors as part of a shared intertextual environment and of describing their connotational meanings or entailments as a function of different types of relationship with that environment. The discussion highlights the potential of metaphors for establishing thematic, interpersonal and textual links within and across texts, and the important implications which these have for the stories' coherence and for their translation.