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Project

Belgiƫ-Belgique: fifty years of intra-Belgian literary translations (1970-2020)

This project studies the literary translation flows between francophone Belgium and Flanders in the period 1970-2020. We examine the link between intra-Belgian cultural transfers and the mutual knowledge and perception of each other's culture in a period of increasing federalization of the state. We explore whether the gap between Dutch-speaking and French-speaking Belgium as constructed in the political discourse corresponds with cultural practice. We do so by a quantitative mapping of the translations of four distinct types of literary production: poetry in literary journals, novels that have won a literary award, theatre and comics. For each of these types, we then first examine which actors and institutions have played a role in the translation. Translation sociology will allow us to write profiles of the actors involved, whereas insights from the translation policy approach will guide our analysis of the institutions. This phase also includes visualizations of the findings. Next, we study the reception of this literature in translation from the other part of the country. A mixed approach of collecting reviews, archival work, and surveys and interviews will provide the data for analysing both the professional (critics) and public (readers, audience) reception and perception. Finally, we will make the link between our findings and the cultural and social developments in Belgium since 1970.

Date:1 Jan 2021 →  Today
Keywords:intra-Belgian cultural transfers, federalization, translation policy, translation sociology
Disciplines:Comparative literature studies, Literary translation, Literatures in French, Literatures in Dutch, Translation and interpretation sciences