INTERMEDIAL ALLUSIONS AND THE TRANSLATION OF CULTURAL CODES IN IRIS MURDOCH’S NOVEL “THE SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE MACHINE”

Abstract

The article examines the functioning of intermedial allusions and the mechanisms of translating cultural codes in Iris Murdoch’s novel “The Sacred and Profane Love Machine” from the perspectives of intersemiotic translation and the theory of intermediality. The point of departure is the understanding of the literary text as a component of cultural memory, in which verbal structures form a complex system of intertextual and intermedial connections with visual art. Special attention is devoted to allusions to Titian’s painting “Sacred and Profane Love”, which serves as a visual prototext and determines the philosophical architectonics of the novel. The methodological framework of the study includes E. Panofsky’s iconological analysis, U. Eco’s concept of the cultural “encyclopaedia,” and the fundamentals of intersemiotic translation theory. The article demonstrates that the verbalization of the pictorial image in the novel does not amount to a simple description or quotation, but involves a complex process of semantic analysis and the re-accentuation of iconographic elements in accordance with the logic of the narrative conflict. It is shown that the Renaissance Neoplatonic model of the coexistence of earthly and heavenly love is transformed into a modernist psychological and ethical model of the individual’s inner contradiction. Intersemiotic transcoding is accompanied by a partial reduction of the polysemy of the visual prototext and by the strengthening of the dichotomous opposition that structures the novel’s imagery. At the same time, this opposition functions as a processual model of transition between different modes of Eros. As a result, the translation of cultural codes emerges as a dynamic interpretative process that shapes a new model of meaning-making in the modernist novel and expands the possibilities of translation-oriented analysis of intermedial phenomena. The incorporation of the visual code deepens the semantic density of the images and the reader’s receptive competence, transforming the reader into an interpreter of cultural memory. Thus, Murdoch’s novel appears as a space of dialogue between different artistic languages, where cultural transcoding is realized through the tense interaction of tradition and modernist reinterpretation.