The Effects of Translation

Abstract

In this article, I will examine the role of literary citation in Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, as well as its Hungarian translation. This will be achieved through an analysis of selected citations from Rainer Maria Rilke’s late poems in the novel. First, I will employ the notion of intertextuality developed by the Tel Quel circle to demonstrate how it becomes a defining characteristic of Pynchon’s postmodernist writing. Following that, I will provide a reading of the various contexts and connotations Rilke’s Duino Elegies evoke in Pynchon’s text. My intention is to highlight the multifaceted nature of the intertextual landscape in Pynchon’s work, its complex use of references, and the differences between this landscape and that of the Hungarian translation.

Keywords

• citationality
• intertextuality
• translation
• postmodern