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Article published In:
Transnational Image Building: Linking up Translation Studies, Reception Studies and Imagology
Edited by Paola Gentile, Fruzsina Kovács and Marike van der Watt
[Translation Spaces 10:1] 2021
► pp. 70–93

“My language has an immense potential”

A review of Cees Nooteboom’s national and transnational circulation

ORCID logo | University of Trieste
This article sets out to chart the success of the Dutch novelist, poet and travel writer Cees Nooteboom, who has achieved literary fame in several countries of the world while recognition in his home country lagged behind. To analyse the reasons for the conflicting images attributed to this cosmopolitan author, I will look behind the curtains of the transnational production and reception of his writings, investigating his success in five central or semi-central languages (Heilbron 2010). The study of how this writer has succeeded in transcending the peripheral position of the Dutch language in the world literary system will be carried out by combining the sociology of translation with reception studies and imagological considerations. Nooteboom appears to be a peculiar case of image building: he is internationally represented as a Dutch and a European writer, but his lack of Dutchness appears to have hindered his recognition in the Netherlands.
Keywords: Cees Nooteboom, Dutch literature, transnational field, conflicting images, Dutchness
Article outline
  • Introduction: Nooteboom in and around the world
  • Nooteboom in the transnational literary field
    • The English language area
    • Germany
    • France
    • The Spanish Nooteboom
    • Nooteboom in Italy
    • Overview of Nooteboom’s cross-cultural transfer
    • Nooteboom’s network of agents
  • The Nooteboom paradox
  • Imagological observations from a transnational reception
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.20025.ros
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Hu, Bei
2023. Chapter 10. Flowing to the reception side. In Translation Flows [Benjamins Translation Library, 163], ► pp. 183 ff. DOI logo

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