Project IN14-0048:1 "Swedish Translators Dictionary – a national bio-bibliographical database"

The aim of the project

The bio-bibliographical database Swedish Translators Dictionary (Svenskt översättarlexikon, SÖL, www.oversattarlexikon, now also in collaboration with Litteraturbanken https://litteraturbanken.se/%C3%B6vers%C3%A4ttarlexikon/) was founded with the aim to establish a comprehensive resource of historical information about Swedish and Finland-Swedish translators. The women and men who have brought world literature into Swedish culture and created "the second half" of our national literature have, step by step, become visible thanks to the publication of their biographies, chronological catalogues of their published works, and their portraits. The Dictionary project has received infrastructure grants from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond for 2012–2014 (IN11-0351:1) and thereafter for 2015–2017 (IN14-0048:1).

The Dictionary has laid the foundation for new research concerning the translated part of our national literature and the persons who created it. By 2017, the Dictionary had 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.

Results of the project

The long-range aim of the project has been to open up a formerly neglected field to research concerning the history of Swedish literature, language and culture. The goal to publish at least 500 entries before the end of 2017 has been achieved. During the first project period (1 January 2012–31 December 2014), over 150 entries and more than 13 000 work titles were made available in the database. The monthly number of users between January 2012 and December 2014 grew from 1 718 to 3 583 unique visitors. Within the project IN14-0048:1 the number of over 5000 unique visitors was reached. At the end of 2017, around 50000 titles – originals and translations – were searchable in the database.

The expansion of the Swedish Translators Dictionary has opened up a series of new questions for further research. Among these are:

• 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 ideological aspirations of the great power.
• 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 became a platform for further artistic or political activities.
• Translated literature for children and youth. In this field, translators have often had a clear, ideologically oriented influence on the texts translated and canonized for young readers. Through a workshop arranged together with The Swedish Institute for Children's Books, it was possible to establish a short list of important translators.
• 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.
• Translations of plays is a specially difficult field of research, partly because translators here have been more invisible than in other genres, partly because the border between original, translation and adaptation here is even more fluid than in other realms. In 2016, with the help of external sponsors, the editors started a special sub-project aiming at a bibliographical mapping of plays translated into Swedish during the 19th and 20th centuries. A new bibliography, comprising more than 5000 titles, has been published on the Dictionary's homepage as an appendix to an article on translated plays.

The development of the Dictionary and its personnel

The project Swedish Translators Dictionary was initialized within professor Lars Kleberg's research at Södertörn University and developed, up to the first online-publications in 2009, by Södertörn University Library and librarian Magnus Sandgren and application developer Mats Eriksson. The project was for the period 2012–2014 (IN11-0351:1) as well as for the period 2015–2017 (IN4-0084:1) based at Södertörn University Library, which served with technical support.

During the period 2015–2017, Lars Kleberg was head of the project and editor-in-chief of Swedish Translators Dictionary. The following changes in the personnel of the project took place, all confirmed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond:

• PhD Alva Dahl worked as research editor on half-time basis 1 March–31December 2015.
• Research editor PhD Nils Håkanson – permanently employed on half-time basis – was on parental leave for seven months var 15 January– 15 August 2015.
• Daniel Gustafsson worked as research editor on half-time basis, replacing Alva Dahl 1 March–15 August 2015.
• Ludvig Berggren joined the project as second research editor on half-time basis 12 September 2016–30 October 2017.

In autumn 2016, the editors started negotiations to secure the digital future lift of the Dictionary after the period contracted with RJ and Södertörn University Library. A long-time and stable institutional home for the Dictionary was found in 2017 through an association agreement with the fulltext database Litteraturbanken (Göteborg). This institution now guarantees the technical maintenance and support for the visible future. With the beginning of 2018 the Translators Dictionary was transformed to an independent non-profit organization and the database was transferred to the new permanent address https://litteraturbanken.se/%C3%B6vers%C3%A4ttarlexikon/. From its start, the database has been open free of charge for the users. The editors of the Dictionary have exclusive, full and permanent copyright of the article texts published in the database. For its future development, including updates and publication of new articles, the Dictionary is depending on support from various sponsors.

Secondary results of the project

The continuous publication of articles and bibliographies within the framework of the Dictionary are obviously the most immediate achievements of the project. The publication of each new entry has been posted on Facebook. Selected articles from the Dictionary have been published in the Swedish translators' journal Med andra ord.

An important result of Translators Dictionary project is the inspiration and support given to similar new projects in other countries. 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 Norwegian dictionary Norsk Oversetterleksikon (https://www.oversetterleksikon.no/), launched in 2017, has recently developed dynamically and has from the Swedish project taken over the rôle as "godfather" and provider of software and support to new projects like the Dutch Vertalerslexicon voor het Nederlandstalig gebiet (https://www.vertalerslexicon.nl/). The international interest shown for the Swedish model not only demonstrates its general practical applicability but also confirms its contribution to international translation studies in general.

Participation in and organization of conferences

• "Zweites Germersheimer Symposium: Übersetzer als Entdecker" in Germersheim, Germany 7–9 June 2013, participation with paper presentations by Nils Håkanson och Lars Kleberg.
• "Finlandssvenska översättare i Svenskt översättarlexikon", a seminar organized by the Swedish project at Hanaholmen, Finland 5–6 September 2013.
• "Det omöjligas konst – översättningens roll i Norden", participation with paper presentation by Lars Kleberg at a seminar organized by Letterstedtska föreningen, 18–19 October 2013 in Stockholm.
• "Drittes Germersheimer Symposium: Übersetzen und Literatur" i Germersheim, Tyskland 14–16 November 2014, participation with paper presentations by Lars Kleberg och Martin Ringmar.
• In Oslo, 9 November 2015 Alva Dahl och Nils Håkanson took part as invited speakers in a seminar at Oslo University Library to present the Swedish Dictionary and support the foundation of a similar Norwegian project.
• 3–4 December 2015, Lars Kleberg took part in The Second U4-workshop Cultural Transfer at Uppsala University.
• 26 Novemer 2016 the conference "Den andra halvan av nationallitteraturen" was organized by the Swedish Translators Dictionary in collaboration with the Institute for Interpreting and Translation Studies, Stockholm University.
• 9–10 February 2017 the conference "Världslitteraturen och dess svenska röster" was organized by the Swedish Translators Dictionary in collaboration with Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien.
• 10–14 April 2017 Lars Kleberg participated in Congrès Mondial de la Traductologie in Paris with the paper "A Digital Dictionary of Translators as a Basis for Translation History".
• 16–18 June 2017 Lars Kleberg participated in a roundtable seminar at Fünftes Germersheimer Symposium "Wie ist das übersetzt?" in Germersheim, Germany.