Translating Scandinavia: Scandinavian Literature in Italian and German Translation - 1918-1945

Call for papers

The Danish Academy in Rome and The Italian Institute for Germanic Studies are organizing the international conference “Translating Scandinavia” in Rome on 20-21 October 2016. The conference is supported by the Carlsberg Foundation ([url=http://www.carlsbergfondet.dk]http://www.carlsbergfondet.dk[/url]). 

Confirmed speakers: Steen Bo Frandsen (University of Southern Denmark), Karin Hoff (University of Göttingen), Outi Paloposki (University of Turku) and Chris Rundle (University of Bologna).

Conference description:
Bringing together scholars from different disciplines such as translation studies, transfer studies, history, comparative literature and Scandinavian studies this conference aims to further our understanding of the translation and reception of Scandinavian literature in Italy and Germany from 1918 to 1945. Linguistically, Scandinavian literature can be defined as literature originally composed in one of the three Scandinavian languages: Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Scandinavian literature has been present in German literary space since at least the beginning of the 19th century. Existing studies have particularly explored the German interest in Scandinavian literature as regards the period from 1870 to 1914, when important authors of the so-called Modern Breakthrough attained cult status among German readers. The public craze for translations from the Scandinavian languages persisted in the Weimar era and during the Nazi period. But what were the changes and the continuities in the publishing of translations from Scandinavia in the period under scrutiny?

Did Scandinavian literature become associated with conservative and reactionary agendas already in the Weimar years and even before WWI? Were existing translations of Scandinavian authors modified and recontextualized to fit new racial agendas in the Nazi era, as some case studies have suggested? Did authors’ Scandinavian background serve as an excuse for publishers to issue translations that could be seen as politically problematical from the point of view of the Nazi authorities? Such and other questions can be asked of the popularity of translations from the Scandinavian languages in Germany from 1918 to 1945, a
popularity which, despite pioneering studies, still requires further research and consideration.

We invite papers related to the overall theme of the conference. We especially invite papers that, while presenting a specific case study, also address broader methodological and theoretical problems in writing translation history. Participants may choose to focus on Scandinavian literature in Italian or German translation or on the interaction between the canons of Scandinavian literature in the two countries.

Topics might include:
--Translators of Scandinavian literature
--Cultural mediators between Scandinavia, Italy and Germany
--Scandinavian literature in publishers’ series
--Scandinavian literature in world literature anthologies
--Changing functions of Scandinavian literature before and after the advent of Fascism/Nazism
--Relay translations
--Censorship (e.g. banned authors like Karin Michaëlis, Sigrid Undset og Martin Andersen Nexø)
--Racism
--‘Nordicity’ in Italy and Germany
--Scandinavian literature during the Second World War

Paper proposals: 
Proposals should include the paper title, a 300-word abstract, the speaker’s institutional affiliation (if any), and a brief CV. All submissions must be received by June 1 2016, and participants will be notified of the outcome of the selection process by approximately June 15 2016. Please send submissions to wegener@acdan.it and berni@studigermanici.it. After the conference, the organizers will prepare an edited volume in English based on the conference papers.

Presentation format:
Each paper will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. The conference language will be English, but papers in other languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, German and Italian) will be considered under special circumstances.

Conference fee: 50 euro.
Organizers:  Anna Wegener and Bruno Berni.

Conference venues:
The Danish Academy, Via Omero, 18, 00197 Rome, Italy
The Italian Institute for Germanic Studies, Via Calandrelli, 25, 00153 Rome, Italy
The Danish Academy holds a list of appropriate hotels within walking distance of the Academy.

For more information, please contact Anna Wegener at wegener@acdan.it