The image of The Netherlands and Flanders in Italian Literary Translations. A socio-imagological approach

The aim of this study is to gain insight into the translation of contemporary fiction from Dutch into Italian, with a special focus on the selection, reception and image-building of the translated literary works. In the light of recent research (van Doorslaer, Flynn en Leerssen 2016), the theoretical framework will combine Reception Studies, Translation Studies and Imagology. Imagology seeks to study “the origin and function of the characteristics of other countries and people at textual level” (Beller en Leerssen 2007: 7). Drawing on this definition, the questions that this project seeks to answer are: which image of the Netherlands and Flanders is promoted in Italy with the translation of the selected books? Which selection criteria are adopted to decide which books have to be translated into Italian? Which roles are played by the Dutch and Flemish Foundations for Literature, translators and literary agents in this process? How are Dutch and/or Flemish authors and their literary works represented in Italy? The methodology of this project follows a three-tiered approach. In the first phase, the selection and translation phases are analysed in a sociological perspective. To that end, 12 Italian literary translators, 4 staff members of the two Literary Foundations and de staff members of three Italian publishing houses (Marsilio, Fazi and Iperborea) will be interviewed. The second phase will consist of the analysis of paratexts (book covers, reviews, prefaces, afterwords, etc.). The third phase will take into account the textual analysis and the translation of some passages containing realia and other cultural references taken from a corpus of 57 Dutch and Flemish literary works translated into Italian from 2000 to 2017.