Popular or prestigious? – A study of hierarchies and what is translated, directly and indirectly, into Swedish 2000–2015

Figures & data

Table 1. The most translated languages globally 2012, compared to the hierarchies of MLs for indirectly translated novels and the SLs for novels translated directly into Swedish.

Most translated SLs globally 2012, based on Lindqvist (2015)	% of the SLs	The MLs for ITr into Swedish 2000–2015	% of all MLs	Most translated SL in direct translation into Swedish 2000–2015	% of the SLs
English	62	English	68.6	English	61
French	10	French	8.6	Norwegian	17.7
German	9	German	5.7	French	6.1
Russian	5	Russian	5.7	German	3.3
Italian	3.5	Spanish	5.7	Danish	2.7
Spanish	3	Dutch	4.3	Spanish	1.9
Swedish	2	Turkish	1.4	Russian	1.5
Japanese	1.5			Finnish	1.3
Danish	1			Portuguese	1.2
Latin	1			Icelandic	1.0

Table 2. The four literary prizes to which the translations were compared, ordered according to year of establishment.

Prize	Year of establishment and aim
The Nobel Prize in Literature	Established in 1901 in Sweden, given to the most outstanding author, regardless of nationality.
Prix Médicis étranger	Established in 1970 for literature translated into French.
Prix Femina étranger	Established in 1985, as a complement to the French Prix Femina, and given to ‘best foreign novel’.
The International Dublin Literary Award	Established in 1994 in Ireland, given to a novel written in, or translated into, English, which is of ‘high literary merit’. Libraries in 177 countries send in nominations (Dublin Literary Award).

Table 3. The number of novels translated from the other Nordic languages into Swedish 2000–2015, ordered according to the number of translations from each language.

Nordic SL	Novels
Norwegian	566
Danish	147
Finnish	73
Icelandic	55
Total	841

Table 4. The six publishing companies with the most translations from the Nordic languages, ordered according to the number of translations published.

Publisher	Novels
Schibsted/Boknöje	317
Norstedts	80
Forum	69
Bonnier	54
Piratförlaget	37
Wahlström & Widstrand	24
Total	581

Table 5. The 27 ultimate SLs and number of ITrs into Swedish 2000–2015, ordered according to the number of translations.

Ultimate SL for ITr	Novels
Hebrew	15
Afrikaans	10
Turkish	7
Indonesian	4
Galician	3
Italian	3
Russian	3
Albanian	2
Japanese	2
Kazakh	2
Korean	2
Kurdish	2
Basque	1
Dari/Farsi	1
Dutch	1
English	1
French	1
Georgian	1
German	1
Hindi	1
Icelandic	1
Kannada	1
Kerewe	1
Turkmen	1
Ukrainian	1
Vietnamese	1
Yiddish	1
Total	70

Table 6. The six companies with the most ITrs 2000–2015, ordered according to the number of translations.

Publisher	Novels
Weyler	10
Norstedts	9
Albert Bonniers	6
Brombergs	6
Leopard	5
Wahlström & Widstrand	5
Total	41

Table 7. The authors translated indirectly into Swedish 2000–2015 after receiving one or more of the four literary prizes, ordered according to the prizes’ year of establishment.

Prize	Author	Award year	Year of ITr into Swedish (2000–2015)
The Nobel Prize in Literature	Isaac Bashevis Singer	1978	2000
Prix Médicis étranger	André Brink	1980	2001
	David Grossman	2011	2011
	Orhan Pamuk	2005	2005
	Avraham B. Yehoshua	2012	2012
Prix Femina étranger	Amos Oz	1988	2002, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013
The International Dublin Literary Award	Orhan Pamuk	2003	2005

Table 8. The total number of prize-winners 2000–2015 of the four prizes, ordered according to the number of winners translated into Swedish before receiving the prize.

Prize	Not translated into Swedish before the prize	Translated into Swedish before the prize	Translated the same year as the prize or later
The Nobel Prize	0	16	0
Prix Médicis étranger	4	9	3
The International Dublin Literary Award	4	8	4
Prix Femina étranger	4	7	5
Total	12	40	12

Table

Norway	Finland	Denmark	Iceland
Anne Holt	Antti Tuomainen	Elisabeth Egholm	Arnaldur Indridason
Gunnar Staalesen	Harri Nykänen	Erik Valeur	Árni Þórarinsson
Jo Nesbø	Leena Lehtolainen	Gretelise Holm	Steinar Bragi
Jørn Lier Horst	Matti Rönkä	Henrik Brun	Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Karin Fossum	Reijo Mäki	Jesper Stein
Kjell Ola Dahl		Jussi Adler-Olsen
Samuel Bjørk		Peter Høeg
Thomas Enger		Sara Blaedel
Unni Lindell		Søren & Lotte Hammer

Lindqvist, Y. (2015). Det skandinaviska översättningsfältet – finns det? Språk och Stil, 25, 69–87.

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