I teach e.g. translation theory and Literary translation at advanced level. I actually teach a new created course in "Translating for Children and Young People" (Spring 2023)

I also supervise bachelor's and master's theses.

Together with my colleague Ulf Norberg, I teach at the method seminars and lead the presentations of bachelor's theses during the spring semester each year.

Research topics:

• Sociological approaches in Translation Studies
• Children's literature in translation
• Translation and reception of taboo topics
• Bibliomigrancy/transnationalism
• Swedish literature in the global book market with focus on USA & UK
• Cultural transfer from to/from the periphery
• Translation and ecocriticism
• Transcreation

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Contemporary translated children’s literature in Sweden with a focus on literature from French-speaking regions

  2022. Valérie Alfvén, Charlotte Lindgren. STRIDON: Studies in Translation and Interpreting 2 (1), 79-95

  Article

  This article sheds light on translated children’s literature in Sweden during the period 2015−2020. A relatively large portion of children’s literature in Sweden (36% in 2020), from books for toddlers to young adult literature, comes from translations. It has been shown in polysystem research, that ‘semi-peripheral’ countries such as Sweden, or places having a so-called ‘dominated language’, are known to import much literature because, for example, their internal production is rather limited, which a priori is not the case in Sweden. We first present a panorama of the kinds of books that are translated to Swedish and the languages they are translated from. We then focus on the particular position in Sweden of African children’s literature from French-speaking regions and assume that French is used as a tool that enables this literature to reach a Swedish audience, as part of the global phenomena of serial books and the emerging wimmelbooks. We conclude that even if Sweden’s national production is greater than book importing and translation, there is still a not insignificant number of translated picturebooks through which authors and illustrators from French-speaking regions occupy a stable share of this production, and may in this way transport cultural values from more peripheral countries.

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• Traduction et réception de sujets difficiles en littérature de jeunesse de la France à la Suède

  2021. Valérie Alfvén, Charlotte Lindgren. Littératures et cultures d'enfance et de jeunesse, 147-166

  Chapter

  This article deals with the reception of the translations of the Belgian picture book illustrator and writer Kitty Crowther in Sweden, from the moment she got the prestigious ALMA-prize 2010. The analyse of the reception of her translated work to Swedish through press articles and professional critics shows that she was unknown in Sweden before she gets the prize and that it permitted her to quickly win a high status in the Swedish literary field for children. We also found that the articles linked willingly Crowther and her illustrations to Scandinavian. We argue that in fact, giving her the prize is making a self-consecration (Casanova). By doing this, Sweden reinforces its role as a consecrator in the world field of Children’s literature and strengthens the autonomy of its position in it.

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• Almapriset lyfter världens barnböcker

  2021. Valérie Alfvén, Charlotte Lindgren. Dagens arena

  Article

  Den franske författaren Jean-Claude Mourlevat var i stort sett okänd i Sverige innan han fick Almapriset. När engelska dominerar översättningar av barn- och ungdomslitteratur är Almapriset viktigt för att lyfta böcker på andra språk, skriver Valérie Alfvén och Charlotte Lindgren.

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• Defying norms through unprovoked violence

  2020. Valérie Alfvén. Children’s Literature in Translation, 263-276

  Chapter

  This chapter examines the translation and reception of two Swedish young adult novels – Spelar död [Play Dead] and När tågen går förbi [When the Trains Pass By] – published in France in the 2000s. Both books use unprovoked violence in a realistic genre for adolescents, something no French author had dared to do previously. The two novels ignited a moral panic in France that led to heated debates in the French literary field. This chapter retraces the stormy reception of these novels in France and analyzes the constraints to which translations of unprovoked violence are often subject, especially when translated from a source culture whose norms are more liberal than the target culture. Linking translation strategies with reception, this chapter uses Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory to determine how the two novels became ‘innovative’ (in Even-Zohar’s sense of the term) in the French literary field in the 2000s.

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• Tueuses sans gages ou l’émergence de l’« inquiétante adolescente » dans les romans réalistes contemporains pour adolescents

  2018. Valérie Alfvén.

  Article

  Through examples of realistic novels for Swedish teenagers and, in comparison with the French production of the early 2000s, this article seeks to highlight the growing emergence in Sweden of a "nasty" teenager who uses unprovoked violence against other teenagers. This character of a nasty girl begins, timidly, to break out/emerge into French realistic novels as well.

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• Violence gratuite et adolescents-bourreaux

  2016. Valérie Alfvén (et al.).

  Thesis (Doc)

  The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of the role of Swedish literature for adolescents in the French literary scene in the early 2000s. The sociology of literature constitutes the main theoretical framework of this thesis.

  Drawing from examples that broach the sensitive topic of "unprovoked violence" as it is treated in two Swedish novels for teenagers, Spelar död [Play Death] by Stefan Casta and När tågen går förbi (Train Wreck) by Malin Lindroth, this thesis shows how these novels are innovative in Even-Zohar’s sense of the term, as addressed in his Polysystem Theory (1990). By introducing "unprovoked violence" and violent teenagers via a realistic genre, such works filled a vacuum in the French system and injected a new dynamic into it. This dynamic makes it possible for new literary models to be introduced in the system and to change the standards of that system.

  The analyses of the French and Swedish receptions of the two novels mentioned above show that they gave rise to a moral panic in France, which is not an unusual thing to happen in periods of ongoing change. This also clarifies the differences in norms between the two systems. The French system tends to reject dark topics, while the Swedish wishes to discuss them. The investigations of the translations of unprovoked violence show that adherence to Swedish norms determine the translation’s adequacy (Toury), which may be part of the reason for the stormy reception the two works received in France, and their undergoing censure. The position of translators and publishers in the literary system also plays a major role for a translated text not being censured during the transfer from one system to another.

  Even if the Swedish titles translated into French are few, this thesis shows that the impact of Swedish literature on adolescents in France is certain. By introducing new and sensitive topics, such novels could be early markers of an evolution of the French field of literature for adolescents.

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• Hur översätts oprovocerat våld i ungdomslitteratur från svenska till franska? En empirisk studie

  2015. Valérie Alfvén, Hugues Engel. Översättning för en ny generation

  Chapter

  I Frankrike styrs barn- och ungdomspublikationer av en lag från juli 1949 som har till syfte att förhindra ungdomens ”demoralisering”. Denna lag har utan tvekan haft ett starkt inflytande på den franska ungdomslitteraturen. Författare och förläggare kan nämligen hållas juridiskt ansvariga för sina texters innehåll. Däremot är den svenska ungdomslitteraturen känd för sin frihet i hur vissa ”känsliga” ämnen behandlas (se Delbrassine 2006). Ett av dessa känsliga ämnen är ”oprovocerat våld” (fr. violence gratuite), vilket är centralt i Spelar död av Stefan Casta. Denna text hyllades av den svenska kritikerkåren medan den väckte starka reaktioner och stor debatt bland franska kritiker. Frågan är om denna franska ”tveksamhet” och detta motstånd mot våldsamma inslag i ungdomslitteratur kan spåras i översättningarna. Vi har undersökt empiriskt hur tvåspråkiga läsare upplever våldet i Castas text och dess franska översättning. Föreliggande studie visar att översättningen tonar ner textens verbala våld. Trots detta upplevs den franska översättningen som lika våldsam eller något mindre våldsam som det svenska originalet. Detta kan bero på att översättaren inte har gjort någon ändring i det diegetiska våldet – och detta trots de starka normer som råder i den franska barn- och ungdomslitteraturen.

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• Réticences françaises à la phobie de l'idylle?

  2015. Valérie Alfvén. Médiations interculturelles entre la France et la Suède, 244-256

  Chapter

  La réception mouvementée de deux romans suédois pour adolescents, en France, au début des années 2000, permet de s’interroger sur le traitement de la thématique sensible de la violence gratuite exercée par des adolescents et de montrer comment cette thématique affronte brutalement une doxa propre à la littérature de jeunesse. À travers la réception et la traduction de ces deux romans, il est alors possible de mettre en lumière une résistance française face à la phobie de l’idylle suédoise. 

  The reception of two Swedish novels for teenagers in France in the early years of 2000 raises questions on the treatment of the sensitive topic of “violence with no apparent reasons” and how it brutally goes against a doxa, specific to children's literature. Through the reception and translation of these two novels it is possible to highlight a French resistance against a Swedish phobic idyll.

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• La métamorphose francaise de Fifi Brindacier

  2001. Valérie Alfvén, Isabelle Nières-Chevrel, Isabelle Nières-Chevrel.

  Quatre questions vont se poser pour notre étude de Fifi Brindacier : que vaut la nouvelle version de 1995 et qu'apporte-t-elle de nouveau par rapport aux premières versions ? En quoi diffèrent les versions de 1951 et de 1962 par rapport à l'original ? Quel succès pour Pippi Långstrump en Suède et en Europe ? L'insuccès du livre en France et les choix de la traductrice sont-ils liés au contexte socio-historique et littéraire français d'après la seconde guerre mondiale?

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• Coming to light? Transcreating Anne of Green Gables to French

  2022. Valérie Alfvén.

  Conference

  “Anne of Green Gables” (1908) by L.M Montgomery has been translated into French four different times (1924, 1964, 1986 and 2020). However, it was not until the success of the Netflix series “Anne with an E” (2017) that Montgomery's text really became a success among French young readers. It took almost eighty years for the books to be published in its entirety (1986) and the text was retranslated in 2020 with a clear reference to Netflix on the cover. 

  This paper seeks to investigate how the French translation of “Anne of Green Gables” from 2020 relates to the retranslation hypothesis (Berman 1990) and to the concept of transcreating which is “often appl[ied] in advertising and marketing context” (Pedersen 2014). I will focus on the newest translation of the first volume of the book series, but I will also compare to the older translations from 1964 and 1986. 

  My research questions are therefore: How much does the Netflix series (marketing context) affect the translation itself? Is there room for transcreating and how does it take place? I will rely on Korzeniowska who assumes that transcreating takes “place when a translator recreates the given text for a specific audience, this mainly being within the field of advertising, when promoting brand-related products or preparing video games for foreign markets, etc.” (2000:73). I will also use the retranslation hypothesis by Berman (1990) and Chesterman, which presumes that “later translations tend to be closer to the source text” (Chesterman 2004:8). Many studies show that this hypothesis holds, but that it has no universal value. It seems that in the case of translation of “Anne of Green Gables” to French, transcreating makes the text readable for a young public, even if it takes liberties with the original text, and by this way brings it back to light.

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Show all publications by Valérie Alfvén at Stockholm University