Crafting images of multilingual Sweden: Collaborative language work in Swedish book publishing
This project investigates collaborative language work in Swedish book publishing, with a focus on the production of novels depicting images of multilingual Sweden. It centers on how the key actors (authors, editors and publishers) discuss and negotiate language-related issues, in particular, fictional representations of migration-related language variation, and how ideas about accuracy, audience, authenticity, comprehensibility, genre, and standard language enter these discussions and affect the novels under production.
The project adheres to the newer sociolinguistic research claiming that “the business of words” in privileged professional settings can provide insights into processes of the regulation and valorization of languages, and about how this affects the wider society.
Theoretically and methodologically, the project embraces a linguistic ethnographic approach, combining perspectives from sociolinguistics, ethnography, publishing studies and social theory. It consists mainly of ethnographic case studies of collaborative language work in four author-editor-publisher teams. Data includes observations of meetings, interviews, annotated and revised manuscripts, the published novels and their audiobook adaptations. In addition to the case studies, we will conduct interviews with ca 30 authors, editors and publishers, and analyze promotional materials for ca 30 novels. All data will be analyzed using a combination of thematic, discourse and interactional methods of analysis.
The project adheres to the newer sociolinguistic research claiming that “the business of words” in privileged professional settings can provide insights into processes of the regulation and valorization of languages, and about how this affects the wider society.
Theoretically and methodologically, the project embraces a linguistic ethnographic approach, combining perspectives from sociolinguistics, ethnography, publishing studies and social theory. It consists mainly of ethnographic case studies of collaborative language work in four author-editor-publisher teams. Data includes observations of meetings, interviews, annotated and revised manuscripts, the published novels and their audiobook adaptations. In addition to the case studies, we will conduct interviews with ca 30 authors, editors and publishers, and analyze promotional materials for ca 30 novels. All data will be analyzed using a combination of thematic, discourse and interactional methods of analysis.