INTER-SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF THE NIETZSCHEAN INTERTEXT IN KAHLIL GIBRAN’S “THE MADMAN” AND ITS RETENTION IN THE ARMENIAN TRANSLATION

Abstract

This paper strives to illuminate the semioticity of Gibran Kahlil’s parabolic piece The Madman and argues that a significant facet of this work lies in the Nietzschean influence reflected both in Gibran’s philosophy as well as in his prophetic and oftentimes archaic style of writing. This research attempts to delve deep into the intersemiotic relations between The Madman and such sources as Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Gay Science and Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche. Then it turns to examine the level of retention of those intertextual traces in Sona Kyurkchyan’s translation of The Madman into Armenian. In order to achieve that, we based this research on Vinay and Darbelnet model as well as Berman’s notion of “negative and positive analytics” of translation. The analytical core of this study is a confluence of hermeneutic, literary, semiotic, descriptive and comparative methodologies. Overall, the analysis reveals that the Armenian translator favored literal translation, as well as modulation technique. This analysis serves as a springboard for future research on the exposure of the Nietzschean intertext in Gibran Kahlil’s work. The findings signal the need for additional studies to learn more about the Nietzschean intertext in other works of Gibran and in literature in general, as well as scrutinize the degree of its retention in translations.

Keywords: Nietzschean intertext, hermeneutics, literal translation, Armenian translation, intersemiotic relations