TRANSLATION OF MEDIEVAL CULTURAL CODES IN PETER ACKROYD’S CLERKENWELL TALES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/philspu/2025.9.16Keywords:
transformation, decoding, medieval narrative, reconstruction, modern English novel, postmodern historical novelAbstract
The article analyzes P. Ackroyd’s The Clerkenwell Tales as an example of the transformational processes that emerge within the literary translation of cultural codes and focuses on the postmodern reconstruction of G. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It reveals the mechanisms of rethinking medieval narratives in the context of modern literature; reveals the transformations undergone by characters, plotlines, and narrative strategies in the process of translating cultural codes; and explores how P. Ackroyd individualizes Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, giving them psychological depth and adapting them to the socio-cultural realities of the fourteenth century; analyzes the transformation of the novel's structure, where the linear composition of G. Chaucer is replaced by a decentralized narrative reflecting the chaotic state of London.The scientific novelty lies in conceptualizing “translation” as an analytical metaphor for describing transformational processes in literature, enabling both a new interpretation of intertextual relations and the identification of branched paradigms of meaning in the context of postmodern reception of classical texts. The findings of the study confirm the effectiveness of intertextual analysis to identify the mechanisms of transformation of cultural codes in the process of literary reception, forming new cultural narratives.
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