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Book review article of Translation and World Literature, edited by Susan

Bassnett.
Article in The Journal of Specialised Translation · July 2019

DOI: 10.7771/1481-
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Vedrana Čemerin Dujmić

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The Journal of Specialised Translation Issue 32 – July 2019
Bassnett, Susan (ed.) (2018). Translation and World Literature.

[New Perspectives in Translation and Interpreting Studies]. London
and New York: Routledge, pp. 202, £23.99 (paperback)/£88
(hardback)/£23.99 (eBook). ISBN 978 1138641754.
E
dited by one of the foremost scholars in the field, this title weaves
together Translation Studies and World Literature, thus conceptually
returning to the roots of Translation Studies and the field’s formative
interest in the role of translation in literary history. An oft-cited excerpt from
David Damrosch's seminal work defines world literature as literature
encompassing “all literary works that circulate beyond their culture of
origin, either in translation or in their original language" (Damrosch 2003:
4), while translation theorists – including Bassnett herself (2014: 238) -
have long been interested in the significance of translation in literary
transactions and the transcultural and interlingual movements of texts
across the boundaries of time, space and imagination. Thus, for both sides
of the coin, this volume is a natural melding.
A relatively small, yet comprehensive volume, the book consists of an

introductory essay by the editor and eleven chapters on various topics
within the scope of translation and World Literature. The collection is varied
and diverse in its geographic and thematic distribution, encompassing
several interesting and pertinent topics, many of them evolving out of
extant strands in world literature research. The notion of a dominant
language in the contemporary interpretations of what ought to be deemed
“world” literature is a concern for the authors of chapters 1 and 2, Trivedi
and Forsdick, who explore the hazards of Anglophone and Francophone
monolingualism, as well as the flow of translations between the former
colonisers and the colonised – noting for instance the paucity of translations
of foreign literature into Indian languages and the works of post-colonial
authors who use several languages or language varieties simultaneously
with French, such as Wolof in Senegal or Tahitian in Polynesia.
Chapter 4 examines the market mechanisms and capital flows that shape
the way texts are appropriated and transferred across temporalities and
spatial domains in acts of translation. Echoing D’haen’s (2013: 8-9)
concerns regarding the potential effect of a globalised world literature on
smaller European literatures, resulting in their marginalisation, Medeiros
focuses on the interrelations between translation and cosmopolitanism
viewed through the lens of Portuguese, as both a language of empire and a
minor European language.
While none of the essays in this volume devote an excess of attention to

the fraught relationship between the concepts of world literature and
national literature, a few turn their gaze to the history of national
literatures. Delving into the publishers’ archives, in chapter 5, Dominguez
explores the popularity of Walter Scott’s novels and their incorporation into
the debates on national identity in Latin American states gaining
299
independence from the Spanish Empire in the early 19th century. In chapter
8, Page examines the World Literature Publishing House project and its
long-lasting influence on the Russian cultural and literary domain, seeing it
as a logical evolution of the pre-revolutionary “educational” publishers'
traditions rather than a movement grown out of Soviet cultural ideology.
Page’s chapter is accompanied by two other chapters dealing with 20th
century literary scenes. Thus, while embedded in highly different cultural
spaces and traditions (Mitteleuropean and Mediterranean, respectively), in
chapters 6 and 11, Simon and Stephanides both focus on the exploration of
a multilingual space with a spectrum of languages and transcultural
relations shaped by the imperial past, contemporary ethnic divisions and
translational encounters occurring due to forcible displacement and exile.
Translations of popular fiction and what may be gleaned from them

regarding the movement of literature and the functioning of translation
have been a subject of interest for some world literature scholars (cf.
Nilsson et al. 2017), and Gaspar’s contribution in chapter 7 — looking at
the mass-produced translations of Jack London’s works in Latin America —
supports the view that not only literary masterpieces deserve scholarly
attention.
Finally, three essays discuss theoretical issues inherent in the interplay of

translation and literature. In chapter 3, Blanco reconceptualises the
totalising notion of world literature through the concept of a pluriversal
community and ponders the position of translation in the formation of such
a community. In chapter 9, Alvstad discusses several translations of Borges’
literary prose and the potential proliferation of an author's work in which
one translation may contradict another, thus preventing new retranslations
from modernising its interpretations. In chapter 10, Littau explores how
media play a constitutive role in the worlding of literature, illustrating her
point by expounding on the rise of the printing press and the novel as a
genre and juxtaposing it with contemporary electronic literature easily
available online.
Overall, the collection is a well-rounded and timely volume, characterised

by versatility and depth in its approach to the themes examined. Each of
the studies included is a valuable contribution to the study of literary
translation, which enables the dissemination of individual works in new
cultural spheres while being a key factor in the push and pull of power
relations and imbalances between the major and minor languages. The
volume is highly readable, with the arguments presented in a logical
manner and illustrated by compelling examples and is not overly burdened
by complex jargon so dear to many literary theorists. This allows the volume
to be accessible to both experts and students of translation. Its scope and
range of themes do presuppose at least some acquaintance with World
Literature as a field of study, but even those unfamiliar with those concepts
might find it useful as a guide to expanding their knowledge due to detailed
reference lists after each essay.
300
References
 Bassnett, Susan (2014). “From Cultural Turn to Translational Turn: A Transnational

Journey.” David Damrosch (ed.) (2014). World Literature in Theory. Chichester/Malden:
Wiley Blackwell, 234-248.
 Damrosch, David (2003). What is World Literature? Princeton and Oxford: Princeton
University Press.
 D’haen, Theo (2013). “Major Histories, Minor Literatures, and World Authors.”
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 15(5), https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-
4374.2342.
 Nilsson, Louise, Damrosch, David and Theo D’haen (eds) (2017). Crime Fiction as
World Literature. London/New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Vedrana Čemerin
University of Applied Sciences Velika Gorica
University of Zadar
E-mail: [email protected]
301
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See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

Book review article of Translation and World Literature, edited by Susan

Article in The Journal of Specialised Translation · July 2019

Vedrana Čemerin Dujmić

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Bassnett, Susan (ed.) (2018). Translation and World Literature.

A relatively small, yet comprehensive volume, the book consists of an

While none of the essays in this volume devote an excess of attention to

Translations of popular fiction and what may be gleaned from them

Finally, three essays discuss theoretical issues inherent in the interplay of

Overall, the collection is a well-rounded and timely volume, characterised

 Bassnett, Susan (2014). “From Cultural Turn to Translational Turn: A Transnational

View publication stats

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