PARATEXTS AND READERS: AUSTEN’S NORTHANGER ABBEY AND THE EXPLANATORY NOTES IN THE BULGARIAN TRANSLATIONS OF THE NOVEL

Abstract

This paper looks into the culture inscribed in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and discusses the explications provided in Silviya Nenkova’s and Nadezhda Karadzhova’s footnotes and endnotes for the Bulgarian translations published in 1992 and 1995. It draws upon Cecilia Alvstad’s concept of a “translator’s pact” and argues that translation blunders that lead to logical incoherence make the translator visible.