ABSTRACT

The article sheds light on the impact of awards on the translation of children’s literature into semi-peripheral and peripheral languages and its transnational circulation. In relation to literature for adults, it has been argued that awards instigate both translation and circulation. This article examines whether a similar claim holds true also for children’s literature translated into semi-peripheral and peripheral languages, taking Swedish and Maltese as respective examples. First, we examine to what extent laureates of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing (1956-2018) have been translated into Swedish and Maltese. Then, we turn to circulation and examine the availability of the laureates’ work in the target contexts, looking at what may currently be acquired from libraries and online bookshops in Sweden and Malta. Contrary to previous claims made regarding literary awards, our findings show that this major award for children’s literature did not decisively stimulate translation neither into the semi-peripheral language Swedish nor the peripheral Maltese. With regard to circulation, however, the findings provide further support for claims made in the literature, since the work by the laureates circulate widely both in Sweden and Malta.

摘要

文章阐明了奖项对将儿童文学翻译成半外围和外围语言及其跨国流通的影响。关于成人文学，有人认为奖项会促进翻译和流通。本文以瑞典语和马耳他语为例，研究了类似的主张是否也适用于翻译成半外围和外围语言的儿童文学。首先，我们研究了汉斯·克里斯蒂安·安徒生写作奖（1956-2018）的获奖者被翻译成瑞典语和马耳他语的程度。然后，我们转向流通并检查获奖者作品在目标环境中的可用性，查看目前可能从瑞典和马耳他的图书馆和在线书店获得的内容。与之前关于文学奖项的声明相反，我们的研究结果表明，这个主要的儿童文学奖项并没有决定性地刺激翻译成半外围语言瑞典语和外围马耳他语。然而，在流通方面，研究结果为文献中的主张提供了进一步的支持，因为获奖者的作品在瑞典和马耳他都广为流传。