Popular or prestigious? - A study of hierarchies and what is translated, directly and indirectly, into Swedish 2000–2015

• Many novels are translated into Swedish from the other Nordic languages. In the past, Nordic languages were also sometimes used as mediating languages (ML) for indirect translation (ITr), (Ringmar, n.d., 2008a, p. 174), but this is no longer the case. To better understand this change and ITr, this article draws upon Bourdieu's theory (1983) of 'scale of production of symbolic goods'. Two questions are asked: (1) What kind of literature was translated indirectly into Swedish 2000-2015? and (2) Can Bourdieu's scale of production contribute to explain why Nordic languages are not used as MLs in ITrs? In response to these questions two data sets: (a) direct Nordic translations, and (b) ITrs of novels from all languages, are analysed from four perspectives: (i) the profile of the publishing company, (ii) literary prizes, (iii) the amount of crime fiction, and (vi) grants from the Swedish Arts Council. The analyses reveal that the ITrs are often written by prize-winning authors, and published by well-established publishers receiving grants for the translations. The direct Nordic translations and the ITrs diverge on Bourdieu's 'scale production'. These findings might partly explain why no Nordic language functioned as ML for an ITr into Swedish during the period examined.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Comparative Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Indirect translation

ITr

scale of production

Swedish

Nordic

translation

Bourdieu

conservative revolution

issues

field

Linguistics

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)