Cover not available
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
References (27)
Alvstad, Cecilia
2012 “The Strategic Moves of Paratexts: World Literature through Swedish Eyes.” Translation Studies 5 (1): 78–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ania, Gillian, and Ann Hallamore Caesar
(eds) 2007 Trends in Contemporary Italian Narrative 1980–2007. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press.Google Scholar
Beller, Manfred, and Joep T. Leerssen
(eds) 2007 Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters. A critical survey. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Beller, Manfred
2007 “Perception, Image, Imagology.” In Beller and Leerssen (eds), 3–16.Google Scholar
Billiani, Francesca
2007 “Renewing a Literary Culture through Translation: Poetry in Post-war Italy.” In Translation as Intervention, ed. by Jeremy Munday, 138–160. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Engles, Paul
2009 Selling Ice to Eskimos. Translated Crime Fiction and British Publishing. University of the Arts London: MA Publishing. [URL] [Accessed 17 June 2013]
Even-Zohar, Itamar
1990 “Polysystem Studies.” Poetics Today 11 (1): 1–267.Google Scholar
Genette, Gérard
1997 [1987] Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gentzler, Edwin
2000 “Metaphor and Translation.” In Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English, vol. 2 M–Z, ed. by Olive Classe, 941–945. London/Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, Henrik
2012 “Translation into ‘Minor’ Languages: Invisibility vs. Anglification.” In Translation Technology and Autonomy in Language Teaching and Learning, ed. by Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin, et al., 37–71. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Heilbron, Johan
2000 “Translation as a Cultural World System.” Perspectives 8 (1): 9–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jansen, Hanne
2013. “L’Italia in Danimarca, vista dall’ottica delle traduzioni.” In L’Italia in Europa. L’Italia e la Danimarca ed. by Gert Sørensen, and Adelaide Zocchi 97 112 Roma Edizioni Quasar
Kovala, Urpo
1996 “Translation, Paratextual Mediation, and Ideological Closure.” Target 8 (1): 119–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leerssen, Joep
2007 “Imagology: History and method.” In Beller and Leerssen (eds), 17–32.Google Scholar
Nergaard, Siri
2013. “The (In)visible Publisher in Translations. The Publisher’s Multiple Translational Voices.” In Authorial and Editorial Voices in Translation ed. by Hanne Jansen, and Anna Wegener 177 208 Montreal Éditions québécoises de l’oeuvre
O’Sullivan, Carol
. Winter 2004/5 “Translation, Pseudotranslation and Paratext: The Presentation of Contemporary Crime Fiction Set in Italy.” Entertext 4.3. Supplement: 62–76.Google Scholar
Rudvin, Mette
1994 “Translation and ‘Myth’: Norwegian Children’s Literature in English.” Perspectives 2 (2): 199–211. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Soenen, Johan
1997 “Imagology and Translation.” In Multiculturalism: Identity and Otherness, ed. by Nedret Kuran-Burçoğlu, 125–138. Istanbul: Boğaziçi University Publications.Google Scholar
Sørensen, Gert
2013 “Il ‘Grand Tour’. L’Italia nella formazione culturale di un’elite intellettuale danese dalla fine del Settecento alla metà del Novecento.” In L’Italia in Europa. L’Italia e la Danimarca, ed. by Gert Sørensen, and Adelaide Zocchi, 47–61. Roma: Edizioni Quasar.Google Scholar
Sørensen, Hans
1981 “Le traduzioni di testi italiani in danese dal ‘900 ad oggi.” Il Veltro 25 (1–3): 259–279.Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon
1995 Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tymoczko, Maria
1999 Translation in a Postcolonial Context. Early Irish Literature in English Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.Google Scholar
Tymoczko, Maria, and Edwin Gentzler
(eds) 2002 Translation and Power. Amherst/Boston: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence
2008 “Lawrence Venuti tells us some more about the Business of Translation”. Words without Borders. [URL] [Accessed 14 June 2013]
Zacharasiewicz, Waldemar
2010 Imagology Revisited. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar

Websites consulted

The Danish Public Libraries’
Website: [URL] [Accessed 12 June 2013].
Website on Literature managed by Danish Librarians
[URL] [Accessed 12 June 2013].
Cited by (2)

Cited by 2 other publications

Gentile, Paola
2023. Chapter 12. Combining translation policy and imagology. In Translation Flows [Benjamins Translation Library, 163], ► pp. 225 ff. DOI logo
McMartin, Jack & Krisztina Gracza
2021. The ‘other’ Transylvanian count. Translation Spaces 10:1 ► pp. 48 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.