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Part of
Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology
Edited by Luc van Doorslaer, Peter Flynn and Joep Leerssen
[Benjamins Translation Library 119] 2016
► pp. 163–179

Bel Paese or Spaghetti noir?

The image of Italy in contemporary Italian fiction translated into Danish

Translations participate in the construction of the images of foreign cultures, and texts that reinforce the national stereotypes are often those selected for translation. Are there recurrent features in Italian literary texts translated into Danish that reveal what is perceived as ‘typically’ Italian in the eyes of Danes? This chapter will examine translations of contemporary Italian narrative, relying primarily on the website of the Danish public libraries, bibliotek.dk, that contains keyword categorizations and evaluations produced by the librarians in order to “mediate” between the foreign texts and the Danish readership. The chapter will draw on the notions of image construction and national stereotypes (cf. Beller & Leerssen 2007) and of the metynomic nature of translation (cf. Tymoczko 1999).
Keywords: contemporary Italian narrative, national stereotypes, metonymics of translation, selection for translation, Danish public libraries, Italian noir
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Theoretical framework: Metonymies and stereotypes
  • The material and how to approach it
  • Numerical and distributional survey based on bibliotek.dk
  • Keywords
  • Typically Italian!
  • Bel Paese and Spaghetti noir: Familiar foreignness
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 February 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.119.10jan
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Websites consulted
The Danish Public Libraries’ Website: [URL] [Accessed 12 June 2013].
Website on Literature managed by Danish LibrariansWebsite: [URL] [Accessed 12 June 2013].
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