translation studies. retrospective and prospective views

(e) naming of motifs, cross-motifs, topoi, dubbed by brief crossreferences;
(f) glossing place names and giving capsule histories of institutions
and political and cultural movements and figures;
(g) supplying bits of cultural lore, and explaining various
nomenclature and practices;
(h) explaining, defining, and translating portmanteaus, puns,
coinages, comical etymologies, foreign, archaic, rare or unusual
words;
(i) identifying and explaining neologisms;
(j) explaining extratextuality, especially with reference to items
belonging to “popular culture” which may well be “another’s
esoterica,” as A. Appel Jr. justly observes.
As to the format, annotations are given at the back of the book (A.
Appel’s notes), or, on the principle of organization of a hypertext with
highlighted links (Boyd’s annotations). They also come accompanied by
prefaces, introductions, forenotes and afternotes, including directions of
use for the novice or even experienced reader.
Here is Alfred Appel’s ending to his 1991 ‘Preface,’ pointing to
Nabokov’s secret artistic weapon, i.e. the fictionalization of fact so as to
acquire power over the past, over memory and over his readers.
This edition—now, as in 1970—is analogous to what Pale Fire might
have been like if poor John Shade had been given the opportunity to
comment on Charles Kinbote’s Commentary. Of course, the annotator
and editor of a novel written by the creator of Kinbote and John Ray,
Jr., runs the risk of being mistaken for another fiction, when at most
he resembles those gentlemen only figuratively. But the annotator
exists; he is a veteran and a grandfather, a teacher and taxpayer, and
has not been invented by Vladimir Nabokov. (xiii)
So, who does the annotator resemble more: the scribe, the translator,
the critic, the teacher, the re-reader, Kinbote, John Ray Jr., Mr. Goodman, or
the writer himself?
3. Conclusion: How bad can good annotation be?
Some books are born annotated, some achieve annotation, and some
have annotation thrust upon them. Nabokov has grown all types. Most
importantly, as Priscilla Meyer observes, annotation with Nabokov
“bridges and differentiates the interpenetrating realms of life and art.”
“Without it,” the critic continues, “his four-dimensional tic-tac-toe game is
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