Little-translated national literatures

May 28, 2008 7:40 PM

What are some great national literatures without a substantial presence in English translation? Who/what are their key authors/works?

And as a follow-up, what are some presses, book series, magazines, and so on that publish English translations of these literatures as part of their mission? Example: the Eastern European Poets Series of Ugly Duckling Presse, one of the "priorities" of which is to bring into print "influential Eastern European poets of the past whose work has not been widely available in English."

posted by Cucurbit to society & culture (6 comments total)

Not meaning to be snarky, but probably most national literatures.

This year's London Book Fair focused on books from the Arab world.
posted by lukemeister at 10:35 PM on May 28, 2008

Lukemeister: for sure. Hence "great," my attempt at narrowing the field a bit.

That link is just the sort I hoped to get; thanks.
posted by Cucurbit at 7:01 AM on May 29, 2008

The African Writers Series from Heinemann publishes writers from 19 different African nations. Some of my favorites are Alifa Rifaat and Tayeb Salih. Another good publisher in this realm is Africa World Press and The Red Sea Press. The best blog about literature in translation is Three Percent. Also check out Words Without Borders.
posted by mattbucher at 7:54 AM on May 29, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

I really enjoy Northwestern University Press' Writings from an Unbound Europe.
posted by KoobieKitten at 9:42 AM on May 29, 2008

Also, Columbia University Press publishes a series of Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan.
posted by mattbucher at 8:21 AM on May 30, 2008

The other day I was browsing through Bill Reese's latest catalogue and was very struck by the long description (item 233) of Atuagagdliutt, the first Eskimo newspaper:

Atagagdliutt, translated literally as 'distributed reading matter', stands alone when evaluating the impact of a single printed periodical on a native culture. The catholic editorial taste of Berthelsen and Muller not only brought the world's great literature to the doors of native Greenlanders, but did so in a manner that accomplished dual milestones in Greenlandic cultural history. First, by printing entirely in the native language, they transmitted the worldly canon, much of it for the first time, in a manner readily understandable by their readership. This resulted in a near instant removal of substantive cultural gaps between Greenland and Europe. Second, foreign epics and tales were often set alongside traditional native legends, equating their value with those of the outside world. In result, the success of Atuagagdliutt was a point of national pride. Avidly consumed by its readership, its pages were shared, clipped, and culled to the point of near extinction. To date, five (at most) complete runs exist, entirely in public institutions in Denmark and Greenland. One additional set resides in private hands. Only nine institutions in the United States possess comparable runs, in varying degrees of completeness.

I had never heard of it before. This is probably as good an example as you're going to get of a national literature largely unrepresented in English translation, and largely inaccessible unless you happen to speak Kalaallisut (thank you, Wikipedia). (But see here (pdf) for an interesting survey of Inuit literature translated into English.)

In answer to your follow-up question: the British Council has an excellent site on literary translation, and I also want to put in a plug for Dedalus Books, an independent publisher specialising in English translations of European fiction. Dedalus recently had their funding cut off by the Arts Council (mission statement: 'to shape an arts sector committed to delivering excellent art to the widest range of people, and one empowered to take artistic risk'), but were rescued by a commercial publisher, and now intend to 'move ahead with plans for publishing fiction translated from Danish, Estonian, Flemish, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish'. Why not visit their website, browse through their backlist, and maybe even buy a book or two? They deserve your support.
posted by verstegan at 2:39 PM on June 3, 2008