This dissertation examines the possibilities of a modern science of translation and aims at combining them into a unified methodology. Methodological possibilities of the concept "total translation" are analyzed in terms of its adaptability to the study of various kinds of translation.
The role of textual analysis in translating, in literary criticism and in the history of translation is discussed in the first chapter "Total translation and problems of artistic translation". Special attention is paid to the concept of total translation as it relates to language and text, on the one hand, and literary tendencies, such as Russian symbolism, on the other.
The second chapter "Textual translation" attempts to construct a universal model of translation. Various types of translation are classified and the concept of translation method is formulated.
Communication is compared with metacommunication in the chapter "Metatextual translation". Translation as "metatext" is analysed in the context of other "metatexts" which together form literature as a whole. The structure and functions of translated literature are also discussed in this chapter.
The concept of "the alien word" is discussed in the chapter "In- and intertextual translation". It is argued that various types of intertextual connections can be described by means of translation models. On the basis of F. Dostoevsky's writings the author shows how these in- and intertextual connections are realized and how excerpts of texts function as "alien" elements without losing their contact with the original text (implicitly and explicitly). The ontology of the translated text is discussed here (autonomy and dependency vis-a-vis the original text).
The chapter "Extratextual translation" deals with problems of intersemiotic translation in film adaptations of classic literature. Various literary texts and film scripts are compared and analysed, and a typology of film adaptations of literary texts is propounded.