1st Edition
The Translation of Violence in Children’s Literature Images from the Western Balkans
Considering children’s literature as a powerful repository for creating and proliferating cultural and national identities, this monograph is the first academic study of children’s literature in translation from the Western Balkans.
Marija Todorova looks at a broad range of children’s literature, from fiction to creative non-fiction and picture books, across five different countries in the Western Balkans, with each chapter including detailed textual and visual analysis through the predominant lens of violence. These chapters raise questions around who initiates and effectuates the selection of children’s literature from the Western Balkans for translation into English, and interrogate the role of different stakeholders, such as translators, publishers and cultural institutions in the representation and construction of these countries in translated children’s literature, both in text and visually.
Given the combination of this study’s interdisciplinary nature and Todorova’s detailed analysis, this book will prove to be an essential resource for professional translators, researchers and students in courses in translation studies, children’s literature or area studies, especially that of countries in the Western Balkans.
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Introduction 1. Violence, representation and the Other 2. Contemporary Children’s Literature from the Western Balkans 3. Memories of Violent Past: Bosnia in Creative Nonfiction 4. The Noble Savage: Serbia in Picturebooks 5. Barbarian Neighbours: A Macedonian Middle-grade Novel 6. (Non)Violent Masculinities: Croatian Fiction for Young Adults 7. Anthologies of Exclusion: Montenegrin Short Stories for Children Conclusion
Biography
Marija Todorova is a Research Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University American College Skopje. She is a member of the Executive Council of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies.
"This volume addresses a regional gap in the treatment of children's literature in translation, expands our understanding of the topic of violence in children's literature, and critically engages with the traditional othering of the Balkans in the imagination (and politics) of the Global North. The inclusion of commentary by authors, translators, and publishers sets this volume apart, as does its actor-network focus, underscoring the various, often unpredictable, ways translations come into being and how they are shaped by the multiple actors, including institutions, that are involved."---Professor Brian James Baer, Kent State University, USA
Excerpt of a review in Babel, 2022: "This thought-provoking book makes great contributions to TS and studies on the translation of children’s literature, particularly those in developing or underdeveloped countries or regions. Professional translators, researchers, and students can benefit from this research considerably." --- Shan Zhong, Southwest Jiaotong University, China (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2019.06.003)
Excerpt of a review in International Research in Children’s Literature, 2022: "Children’s literature plays a significant role in shaping and representing cultural and national identities. However, translations of children’s literature from the Western Balkans are distinctly lacking and have remained largely under-researched, which hinders our understanding of this region. Marija Todorova’s The Translation of Violence in Children’s Literature: Images from the Western Balkans, a new monograph in the Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies series, fills this gap." --- Xiaoxiao Xin (DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2022.0475)
Excerpt of a review in Critical Arts, 2022: "Overall, adopting multidimensional examination techniques along with several critical analyses, this book addresses an under-explored topic of "violence" represented in children’s literature and its mediations across cultures. Todorova’s work can be considered as a promising and valuable recommendation to scholarship, not only within the area of translation studies but also for other areas of academic interests, such as media and discourse studies as well as cultural studies." --- Professor Zhenyong Jin and Professor Hongqiang Zhu, China (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2022.2155680)
