Northern Crossings : Translation, Circulation and the Literary Semi-periphery

Abstract

This open access book uses Swedish literature and the Swedish publishing field as recurring examples to describe and analyse the role of the literary semi-peripheral position in world literature from various perspectives and on meso, micro and macro levels, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. This includes the role of translation in the semi-periphery and the conditions under which literature travels to and from that position. The focus is not on Sweden, as such, but rather on the semi-peripheral transitional space as exemplified by the Swedish case. Consisting of three co-written chapters, this study sheds light on what might be called the semi-peripheral condition or the semi-periphery as an area of transition. As part of the Cosmopolitan and Vernacular Dynamics in World Literatures series, it makes continuous use of the concepts of 'cosmopolitan' and 'vernacular' – or rather, the processual terms, cosmopolitanization and vernacularization – which provide an overall structure to the analysis of literature and literary phenomena. In this way, the authors show that the semi-periphery is an ideal point of departure to further the understanding of world literature, because it is a place where the cosmopolitan (the literary universal) and the vernacular (the rootedness in a particular culture or place) interact in ways that have not yet been thoroughly explored.

<p>CONTENTS: Series introduction : The cosmopolitan–vernacular dynamic: Conjunctions of world literature -- 1. Introduction: The cosmopolitan, the vernacular and the semi-periphery -- 2. Infrastructure of the semi-peripheral exchange -- 3. Translators of Nobel Prize literature -- 4. Translation strategies to and from the literary semi-periphery: Reduction retention, replacement -- 5. Positioning the Swedish literary semi-periphery -- 6. General conclusion</p>

Cosmopolitan–Vernacular Dynamics in World Literatures