Exporting European values? Political myths of liberal democracy and cultural diversity in creative Europe’s literary translation projects

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the role of political myths in the European Commission’s cultural policy strategy. First, it describes the function of political myths in EU identity-building, outlines the Commission’s promotion of common European values through cultural policy, and notes a fault line between the European institutions’ identity-building strategies. Second, the paper points out that political myths obfuscate historical differences between European states. Third, an analysis of Creative Europe’s literary translation project descriptions reveals that projects translating from Western towards Eastern and Southern language areas explicitly promote value-based political myths. Moreover, in countries with budding nationalist sentiments, the European Commission funds translation projects that reinforce a state-like EU identity based on myths of liberal democracy and cultural diversity while embedding European values into a narrative of initial formation, decline in crisis, and future revival. It concludes that Creative Europe highlights the gap between the EU institutions’ identity-building strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural policy
• political myth
• European Union
• literary translation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplemental material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. This is the case in projects like ‘Confluence: the literary quest for common European experience’ (578949-CREA-1-2016-1-RS-CULT-LIT1), ‘Facing destiny with courage – translation of 6 contemporary European novels’ (561196-CREA-1-2015-1-HR-CULT-LIT1), ‘Intercultural understanding and Middle-East European experience’ (561148-CREA-1-2015-1-HU-CULT-LIT1), ‘Shared Experiences in Literature’ (552799-CREA-1-2014-1-PL-CULT-LIT2) and ‘Reading Europeans: Strengthening Cultural Identity through Literature’ (594294-CREA-1-2017-1-NL-CULT- LIT1).

2. ‘SAFE SOULS’ (552702-CREA-1-2014-1-IT-CULT-LIT1) focuses on LGBT-rights, ‘Personal freedom of 19th century female characters’ (552632-CREA-1-2014-1-MK-CULT-LIT1) and ‘Diversity and uniqueness of four representatives of European literature written by women at the start of the 21st Century’ (552641-CREA-1-2014-1-ES-CULT-LIT1) focus on women’s rights, and ‘Forging European Citizenship through Literature’ (561173-CREA-1-2015-1-NL-CULT-LIT1) en ‘Alienation and Identity in Contemporary European Literature – 8 Books To Be Translated Into Serbian’ (561165-CREA-1-2015-1-RS-CULT-LIT1) home in on civil and social rights.

3. This is the case in ‘Shared Experiences in Literature’ (552799-CREA-1-2014-1-PL-CULT-LIT2), ‘Transformations of European Existentialism/Translation of 4 books into Croatian’ (561140-CREA-1-2015-1-HR-CULT-LIT1), ‘Winds of Change’ (561145-CREA-1-2015-1-BG-CULT-LIT1), and ‘Other Voices’ (552666-CREA-1-2015-1-SE-CULT-LIT2).

4. Version on 12/08/19, edited and revised as of 17/12/2019.

5. Version on 12/08/19, edited and revised as of 17/12/2019.

6. This is the case in many projects: ‘Thinking: Literature. Social, cultural and human responsibility of writing’ (552734-CREA-1-2014-1-BG-CULT-LIT2), ‘Contemporary European prose in Czech translation’ (552574-CREA-1-2014-1-CZ-CULT-LIT1), ‘Awarded European Children’s Writers’ (552770-CREA-1-2014-1-RS-CULT-LIT1), ‘Kreuzville Century. 20th century remembrance at the roots of the new Europe’ (552721-CREA-1-2014-1-IT-CULT-LIT1), ‘Europäische Erzähler des 20./21. Jahrhunderts’ (552750-CREA-1-2014-1-BG-CULT-LIT1), ‘(In)Tolerance – Seven Awarded European Writers’ (552696-CREA-1-2014-1-RS-CULT-LIT1), ‘Contrasts in Harmony’ (552774-CREA-1-2014-1-BG-CULT-LIT1), ‘Translation of four books into Catalan’ (552585-CREA-1-2014-1-ES-CULT-LIT1), ‘Relate (to) Europe – translation of 4 contemporary novels into Hungarian’ (552647-CREA-1-2014-1-HU-CULT-LIT1), ‘MIGRATION: THE LUCID CORE OF TODAY’S EUROPEAN ELITERATURE’ (552599-CREA-1-2014-1-BG-CULT-LIT1), ‘Translation of ten books into Croatian’ (552741-CREA-1-2014-1-HR-CULT-LIT1), ‘Translations of 10 books into Latvian’ (552820-CREA-1-2014-1-LV-CULT-LIT1), ‘Diversity and uniqueness of four representatives of European literature written by women at the start of the 21st Century’ (552641-CREA-1-2014-1-ES-CULT-LIT1), ‘The Migrant and the Other in the Perspective of Concise Literary Genres and Adding Lesser-used European Languages’ (561112-CREA-1-2015-1-BG-CULT-LIT1), ‘New Europe Stories’ (561218-CREA-1-2015-1-HU-CULT-LIT1), ‘Echoes of Realities’ (561301-CREA-1-2015-1-SI-CULT-LIT1), ‘Contemporary European Literature as a Means to Enhance the Understanding of Cultural Diversity among Albanian Audiences’ (561194-CREA-1-2015-1-AL-CULT-LIT1), ‘The other side of the story (10 titles)’ (561231-CREA-1-2015-1-AL-CULT-LIT1), ‘European Identities After the Crisis’ (561114-CREA-1-2015-1-PL-CULT-LIT1), ‘Reading Is Easy: 8 European Best Sellers in Bulgarian’ (561119-CREA-1-2015-1-BG-CULT-LIT1), ‘Forging European citizenship through literature’ (561173- CREA-1-2015-1-NL-CULT-LIT1), ‘Translations into Latvian’ (578997-CREA-1-2016-1-LV-CULT-LIT1), ‘EUROPE from FEMALE PERSPECTIVE’ (579002-CREA-1-2016-1-HU-CULT-LIT1), ‘Thinking: Literature. Interlacing of Fact and Fiction in the contemporary European Prose’ (594390-CREA-1-2017-1-BG-CULT-LIT1), ‘Eastern voices’ (594481-CREA-1-2017-1-IT-CULT-LIT1), ‘Aramis Romania Reads with Europe’ (604582-CREA-1-2018-1-RO-CULT-LIT1), ‘It is time for a book’ (604581-CREA-1-2018-1-MK-CULT-LIT1), ‘Kreuzville Citizenship. Stories and short stories from a changing Europe’ (604560-CREA-1-2018-1-IT-CULT-LIT1), and ‘Coping with Insecurities in Contemporary Europe – Translation of ten books’ (604489-CREA-1-2018-1-HR-CULT-LIT1).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jens Meijen

Jens Meijen is a PhD Researcher in Political Science at KU Leuven.