Abstracts
Abstract
This paper discusses the Flemish Literature Fund (FLF), an autonomous government organisation created in 1999 by the Flemish Community to support Flemish literature at home and abroad. It traces the institutional history of the FLF, situating the organisation in the context of Flanders’ longstanding struggle for cultural autonomy within the Belgian state on the one hand and its strong but unequal ties to the Netherlands on the other. Using a translation sociological analytical framework, it goes on to argue that the FLF’s outgoing translation grant decisions reflect two strategies of international dissemination: a focus on the central languages of English, German and French, and a strategic use of the picture book genre to break into emerging languages on the periphery, especially Chinese. While the case of the FLF clearly illustrates the shifting power relations between state and market agents in the era of globalisation, it also indicates a novel approach to state-supported literary export designed to maximise a small, stateless nation’s international resonance in a world market for translations dominated by larger (nation-) states and languages.
Keywords:
- translation sociology,
- world market for translations,
- Flanders Literature,
- Flemish Literature Fund,
- Dutch literature in translation,
- cultural policy
Résumé
Cet article traite du Fonds flamand des lettres (FFL), une organisation gouvernementale autonome fondée en 1999 par le gouvernement flamand pour promouvoir la littérature flamande en Flandre et à l’étranger. Il retrace l’histoire institutionnelle du FFL, situant l’organisme dans le contexte de la lutte de longue date de la Flandre pour une autonomie culturelle au sein de l’État belge, d’une part, et de ses liens forts mais inégaux avec les Pays-Bas, d’autre part. Par l’intermédiaire d’un cadre analytique sociologique de la traduction, il soutient ensuite que les décisions relatives aux bourses de traduction du FFL reflètent deux stratégies disparates de diffusion internationale : l’accent mis sur les langues centrales que sont l’anglais, l’allemand et le français, et l’utilisation stratégique du livre d’images en tant que genre pour pénétrer des langues périphériques émergentes, en particulier le chinois. Si le cas du FFL illustre clairement l’évolution des relations de pouvoir entre l’État et les agents du marché à l’ère de la mondialisation, il témoigne également d’une approche novatrice d’exportation de la littérature soutenue par l’État, visant à maximiser la résonnance internationale d’une petite nation apatride dans un marché mondial de la traduction dominé par des langues plus parlées et par de plus grands États(-nations).
Mots-clés :
- sociologie de la traduction,
- marché mondial de la traduction,
- Fonds flamand des lettres,
- littérature néerlandaise dans la traduction,
- politique culturelle
Appendices
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