Literary Translation Lifecycles The Vital Networks Behind the Circulation of Dutch Literature

Introduction: Literary Translation Lifecycles

JACK MCMARTIN

PART I: Mediating Taste: Discovery, Selection, and Acquisition

1 Connecting Multiple Mediatorships and Literary Awards: The Case of Bart Moeyaert and the ALMA in Sweden and Beyond

ANNIKA JOHANSSON AND SARA VAN MEERBERGEN

2 An Acquired Taste? The Selection and Translation Process of Herman Koch’s Bestseller Het diner in Estonian

LUC VAN DOORSLAER

3 Divine Interventions? Harry Mulisch’s c in Czech

VERONIKA HORÁČKOVÁ AND WILKEN ENGELBRECHT

4 The Translator as a Cultural Tastemaker: Samgis Zandi’s Persian Translation of Stefan Brijs’s De engelenmaker

NASRIN ASHRAFI AND ELAHEH REZVANI

5 From Manuscript to Memory: Publishing and Translational Pathways of Anne Frank’s Diary in Italy

PAOLA GENTILE AND DOLORES ROSS

PART II: Transforming Texts: Translation and Production

6 Translating a meisjesboek: Ideology and Norms in the Selection and Translation of Guus Kuijer’s Polleke into Afrikaans

MARELI SWART AND ILSE FEINAUER

7 Translating “A Noble Stranger”: The Belgian National Poet Charles Ducal and Intra-national Poetry Translation Flows from Dutch to French in a Multilingual Country

TIMOTHY SIRJACOBS AND EWOUD GOETHALS

8 Why the French Market Melted for Lize Spit’s Het smelt: The Success Story of a Flemish Bestseller in French

KIM ANDRINGA AND MAUD GONNE

9 Selecting and Publishing Dutch Literature in Turkey: The Case of Arnon Grunberg’s Graphic Novel Van Istanbul naar Baghdad in Turkish

IRMAK MERTENS

10 The Making of the German Translation of Louis Paul Boon’s Mieke Maaike’s obscene jeugd and Its Last-Minute Retraction

ANJA VAN DE POL-TEGGE

PART III: Circulating Translations: Marketing and Reception

11 Marketing Translated Dutch Literature on Social Media: The Case of the Serbian Publisher Booka

BOJANA BUDIMIR

12 “If You Want to Be Happy, Stop Being Scared”: Guus Kuijer’s Het boek van alle dingen in Russian

EKATERINA VEKSHINA AND IRINA MICHAJLOVA

13 Exemplary and Divergent Translation Trajectories of Children’s Literature from Dutch to Hungarian: A Comparative Case Study

KRISZTINA GRACZA AND ORSOLYA RETHELYI

14 The Migratory Route of Dutch Non-fiction: A Study of the Production and Reception of the Spanish Translation of Melancholie van de onrust by Joke J. Hermsen

CARMEN CLAVERO FERNANDEZ AND GOEDELE DE STERCK

15 Waiting for Gerard: The Long Arrival of Reve’s De avonden in English

JACK MCMARTIN AND FILIP DE CEUSTER

Biography

Jack McMartin is an associate professor of translation studies at KU Leuven, Belgium, and director of the Centre for Translation Studies (CETRA).

Paola Gentile is an associate professor of Dutch translation and interpreting at the University of Trieste, Italy.

Elisa Nelissen is an FWO postdoctoral fellow in translation studies at KU Leuven, Belgium.

“These meticulous studies of a variety of book translations from one language (Dutch) into many others provide an outstanding occasion for deciphering and conceptualising the complexities of the translation process as it actually plays out in reality.”

— Johan Heilbron, emeritus director of research at the CNRS and member of the Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique (CESSP-CNRS-EHESS)

 

“This book offers an excellent set of case studies showing how a small literature finds resonance through translation. It also introduces a new, broadly applicable framework for exploring the lifecycle of translated books—from selection and production to marketing and reception. A timely and much-needed contribution to the study of literary circulation and the people and dynamics that shape it.”

— Elke Brems, professor of Dutch literature and translation studies, KU Leuven