Fiction from the Periphery:HowDutchWritersEntertheFieldofEngl ish-LanguageLiterature
Keywords:
literature, literary, literary field, global, centre, periphery, translations, translation, core– peripherystructure,globaltranslationfield,globalliteraryfield,boundariesAbstract
When it comes to literary translations, English is by far the most used language in the world.
There have been a lot of studies that try to make sense of this dominance, but not many that look
at the other side of the coin, at how writers on the outside can break through the barriers of their
native language and become part of the international literary elite through having their works
translated into English. We suggest a case study of the publication and presentation of literary
translations from Dutch in the United Kingdom and the United States from the theoretical
standpoint of a multi-level field approach. The research lays out the steps that Dutch writers used
to overcome macro, meso, and micro challenges. The suggested theoretical framework adds to
our sociological knowledge of how writers from the margins can break into the world's most
powerful centres, showing that this knowledge is an integral aspect of the same theoretical
framework that explains the much more common reversal of fortunes
