TRANSLATION AND ACCULTURATION: REFLECTIONS ON NADINE GORDIMER'S REPUTATION IN SWEDEN

Christina Gullin

Abstract

This article is a pilot study focussing on the role of translation for the construction of a writer's image in the country where the translation is published. I wish to address this issue by looking at the Swedish translations of two novels by Nadine Gordimer and the ways in which these translations affect or do not affect Gordimer's position in the Swedish literary field. My contention is that the images of her work conveyed by academic experts on modem literature, newspaper reviewers and the translations themselves, respectively, are by no means consistent. My aim is to identify some of the most blatant of these inconsistencies and to discuss the ways in which the images created by academics, critics and reviewers relate to the images that can be extrapolated from the translations.