2011-2016

The aim of the project

Since its start in 2009 the biobibliographical database Swedish Translators Dictionary (Svenskt översättarlexikon, SÖL, www.oversattarlexikon) has become a comprehensive resource of historical information concerning Swedish and Finland-Swedish translators. The women and men who have brought world literature to our culture and created "the second half" of our national literature have, step by step, become visible thanks to the publishing of their biographies, chronological catalogues of their published works, and their portraits. The project has received infrastructure grants from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond for 2012-2014 (IN11-0351:1) and thereafter for 2015-2017 (IN14-0048:1).

The database aims to map the field of literary translation through producing articles about individual Swedish and Finland-Swedish translators and their works, from the Middle Ages to our times. The Dictionary lays the basis for new research concerning the translated part of our national literature and the persons who created it. The fully developed Dictionary will become an important source of knowledge for the creation of a scholarly Swedish translation history, useful for historians of literature and culture and also for other specialists and student. It offers a new comprehensive tool for librarians, publishers, literary critics, and journalists and a meeting place for translators, their works, and a wider reading public.


The results of the project

The long-range aim of the project is to open up a formerly neglected field to research concerning the history of Swedish literature, language and culture. The goal is to publish at least 500 articles before the end of 2017. During the project period in question (1 January 2012-31 December 2014), over 150 articles and more than 13 000 work titles were made available in the database; as a side effect, numerous errors have been corrected in the national union catalogue LIBRIS. Even if the Dictionary at the end of the project contained less than half of the 500 entries planned for the period up to 2017, signs were clear that the expansion of the Dictionary has made it more and more useful for the intended target groups. Thus, the monthly number of users grew from 1 718 unique visitors in January 2013 to 3 583 unique visitors in December 2014. The continuous publication and use of the basic research carried out within the framework of the Dictionary are obviously the most immediate achievements of the project.

The expansion of the Swedish Translators Dictionary has opened up a series of new questions for further research. Among these are:
o Translators during Reformation and Sweden's period as a great power. During the 16th and 17th centuries, translators seem to have played a role as "producers of ideology" for the state. This is primarily true for translators of Reformation literature (including translations of the Bible) and translators of Old Norse texts, which were connected to the "Geatish" aspirations of the great power.
o Female translators and women's rights movement. During the decades before and after 1900 a noticeable share of female translators use their profession as a way to enter the literary, intellectual and political arena. Translation here had a double function: on the one side, it was "a woman's job", a depreciated occupation where women were allowed to perform, on the other hand, it was an activity in the intellectual and artistic sphere where they could establish themselves. Translation became a platform for further artistic or political activities.
o Translation and canon. Knowledge concerning the canon of translated literature in Sweden has significantly expanded thanks to new entries in the Dictionary. On one level, new information has been made available about when, by whom and how
certain works or authors have been translated, how they have been received, when they have disappeared from the book market and the literary discussions, and how they sometimes have reappeared. On another level, the Dictionary questions established histories of literature which neglect specific translations or disregard the fact that a translated literary work has more fluid limits than an original work. As a consequence of retranslations, revised translations, plagiarized translations, and adaptations it is often difficult to talk about one work in the history and canonization of translated classics.
The Swedish Translators Dictionary plays an important role as a source of inspiration and practical help for new, similar projects in other countries. The model developed by the project has been adopted by working groups in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Germany. Most advanced is the German dictionary Germersheimer Übersetzerlexikon (www.uelex.de) which started appearing online in November 2015 run by a collective at Germersheim FTSK (a branch of Gutenberg University, Mainz). The international interest shown for the Swedish model not only shows its general practical applicability but also confirms its contribution to international translation studies in general.

During the period 2012-2014, the Swedish Translators Dictionary actively contributed to the realization of the new German project: at the symposium "Übersetzer als Entdecker" in Germersheim 7-9 June, 2013, representatives of the Swedish staff were invited to present the project and its results. 21-23 November, 2013 the Swedish Translators Dictionary organized a workshop in Stockholm to introduce its German colleagues to its editorial work and technical applications. 14-16 November, 2014, project leader and general editor Lars Kleberg together with the contributor Martin Ringmar participated in a second Germersheim symposium entitled "Übersetzen und Literatur". At this event, thanks to a Swedish initiative, the editor of the new Danish Translators Dictionary, Morten Visby, and the initiator of a similar project in the Netherlands, Petra Broomans, also attended.


Publications and research information

Swedish Translators Dictionary is an Internet publication explicitly aimed at demonstrating and initiating new research possibilities and at the same time offering a service for the interested public. The editors publish texts which should be accessible for the non-specialist as far as the subject and precision permits. The complete bibliography for each translator, including secondary sources, is of great value for specialists from a series of disciplines.

During the project period the staff of Swedish Translators Dictionary participated in the following significant conferences:

o "Zweites Germersheimer Symposium: Übersetzer als Entdecker", at Germersheim, Germany, 7-9 June 2013, participants with papers: Nils Håkanson och Lars Kleberg;
o "Finlandssvenska översättare i Svenskt översättarlexikon" ["Finland-Swedish translators in Svenskt översättarlexikon"], seminar hosted by the Swedish project at Hanaholmen, Finland, 5-6 September, 2013;
o "Det omöjligas konst - översättningens roll i Norden" ["The impossible art - the role of translation in the Nordic countries"], seminar organised by Letterstedtska föreningen, 18-19 October, 2013, in Stockholm, participant with paper: Lars Kleberg;
o "Drittes Germersheimer Symposium: Übersetzen und Literatur" in Germersheim, Germany, 14-16 November 2014, participants with papers: Lars Kleberg and Martin Ringmar.

Publications

Lars Kleberg 2012
”Translations and Translators in Swedish Literary History”, in: Petra Broomans and Sandra van Voorst (eds.), Rethinking Cultural Transfer and Transmission: Reflections and New Perspectives, Groningen: Barkhuis 2012, 61–74.

Lars Kleberg 2013
”Litterärt översättarseminarium och Svenskt översättarlexikon. Erfarenheter från Södertörns högskola”, Nordisk Tidskrift 2013:4, 349–358.

Axel Liffner 2013
12+1. Samtal med svenska översättare. En artikelserie i Aftonbladet 1954, inl. av Lars Kleberg, Stockholm: Ruin 2013, 54 s.

Lars Kleberg 2014
”Für eine Übersetzungsgeschichte von unten”, in: Andreas F. Kelletat & Aleksei Tashinskiy (eds.), Übersetzer als Entdecker. Ihr Leben und Werk als Gegenstand translatorwissenschaftlicher und literaturwissenschaftlicher Forschung, Berlin: Frank & Timme 2014, 17–26.


www.oversattarlexikon.se