The pleasure of the intertext (in translation): The case of Barthes and Lewańska

A b s t r a c t

In this article, I interpret two unusual intertextual references present in the Polish translation of Barthes’s The pleasure of the text by Ariadna Lewańska. Such intertexts are unusual because they are not rooted in the intertextuality of the original: allusions to the classic works of Polish literature are inserted by the translator in the seemingly neutral and “transparent” fragments of the French text. I comment on the motivations behind them, their status, and potential impact on the reader. My analysis was inspired by observations, theses, and postulates derived from The pleasure of the text, which was treated as a theory of translation.