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Yvonne Lindqvist

About me

I am interested in all forms of communication between individuals in society, particularly the form of text production called translation and especially literary translation. I speak English, French and Spanish and have used those language skills in my research about translators, translations and translating. I am Professor in Translation Studies at the Institute for Interpretation and Translation Studies, Department of Swedish and Multilingualism, Stockholm University, Sweden since 2021.

 

Administration

 

I have been a member of the department board several terms between 2013 and 2023. I served as Vice Director of the Institute from 2014 to 2020 and I have been member of the bord for the Institute for Interpreting and Translation Studies at Stockholm University from 2014 to 2024. Since 2021 I am also a member of the Faculty Club board as well as Director of Studies for the PhD-program at the Institute. I will spend the academic year 24/25 at University College of London (UCL) Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS), researching contemporary Anglophone Caribbean literature in Swedish translation.

Teaching

I have until now supervised four PhD disserations within Translation Studies;

2012– 2016 Marcus Axelsson, Institutionen for nordiska språk, Uppsala Universitet. ”Kalla mig inte mamsell!”En jämförelse av tre skandinaviska översättares behandling av kulturspecifika element i fransk- och engelskspråkig skönlitteratur.[”Do not call me mamsell!” A comparison of three Scandinavian translators’ handling of cultural specific references in French and English language fiction.] Diss. 20 Maj. 2016. (second supervisor)

2013-2020 Elin Svahn, Tolk- och översättarinstitutet, Institutionen försvenska och flerspråkighet, SU. The Dynamics of Extra-textual Translatorship. A Mixed-Methods Approach. Diss. 28 feb 2020. (primary supervisor)

2015-2020 Elisabeth Poignant, Tolk- och översättarinstitutet, Institutionen för svenska och flerspråkighet, SU. Tolkade publika samtal. Berättande och triadisk interaktion över språkgränser. [Interpreted Public Literary Conversations : Storytelling and Triadic Interaction Across Language Boundaries ]. Diss. 26 maj 2020. 2012.  (second supervisor)

2015-2021 Raphael Sannholm, Tolk- och översättarinstitutet, Institutionen för svenska och flerspråkighet, SU. Translation, Teamwork, and Technology.The use of Social and Material Scaffolds in the Translation Process. Diss. 3 december 2021. (primary supervisor)

 oday I am the primary supervisor of Giada Brighi, who stared her PhD studies 2022.

I have participated in the creation of most of the courses dealing with translation at the institute and I have been teaching courses from A level up to PhD level.  I was the chair of the theoretical Library Seminar for colleagues and peers until 2023 and I co-teached a faculty doctoral course entitled Textual Cultures, which ran for two years within the research program World Literatures: Cosmopolitan and Vernacular Dynamics. I was responsible for the Master program in Translation until 2023, were I also teach the master thesis course and chair the final seminars each year. I also supervise master thesises and teach translation theory and literary translation as well as the newly stared course Translation sociology and the methodology courses for PhD students. Since 2021, I work as Director of Studies for the PhD-students and also coordinate the research at the Institute.

Research

 

I work mainly within the framework of Descriptive Translation Studies and the Sociology of Translation. My PhD thesis from 2002 written in Swedish – in order to promote the establishing of the research field Translation Studies in Sweden – Translation as Social Practice – Toni Morrison and the Harlequin series Desire in Swedish examined, within a Bourdieusian framework, the differences between high prestige and low prestige literary translation, revealing that the doxa, i.e.  the conception of what translation should be and is varies according to the field of practice. The concept of translation has different meanings within different fields.  Since the thesis I have continued to study the social practices of translation within several genres, for instance crime fiction, cookery books and modern classics, always with focus on the agents involved in the processes, products and functions of the translations. In March 2024 my publication list counted 37 scientific peer-reviewed papers, 3 monographs, 3 anthologies, 2 scientific reports and 12 publications of popular science.

During recent years I have become more and more interested in World Literature Studies and my latest publications investigate the benefits of mixing the focus on the literary agents or intermediaries of the Sociology of Translation and the different forms of "distant reading" and literary circulation of World Literature Studies. I consider Bibliomigrancy a bridge concept between the two approaches. It also has become obvious to me that World Literature scholars need Translation Studies scholars, since –  as Venuti (2014) has pointed out –  without translation there is no world literature. The national literature is written by the authors, but world literature is written by the translators.

From 2016–2022  I was a member of the research program World Literatures: Cosmopolitan and Vernacular Dynamics [http://worldlit.se] within which I worked with a project examining contemporary French, Spanish and English Caribbean literature in Swedish translation. I am a member of EST and a CETRA-alumni.

Latest publications

Lindqvist, Yvonne. 2023. Maryse Condé and The Alternative Nobel Prize of 2018. Translation Flows. Exploring - Networks of People, Processes and Products. (eds. Ilse Feinauer, Amanda Marais, Swart). Amsterdam and New York: Benjamin Publishing. 149–163.

Lindqvist. Yvonne.  2023. Tre nyanser av adekvans – Om grader av källbundenhet i spänningsfältet mellan det vernakulära och det kosmopolitiska i tre svenska översättningar. [Three Nuances of Adequacy – Degrees of  Vernacular and Cosmopolitan Source Influence in Three Swedish Translations]. Språk & stil. 196–230.

Lindqvist. Yvonne. et al. 2022. Northern Crossings. Translation, Circulation and the Literary Semi-periphery. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Lindqvist, Yvonne. 2022. En efterlängtad bok om allt vi vinner på att översätta (A longed for volume about everything we gain when translating. (I) E-versättaren. https://e-versattaren.sfoe.se/en-efterlangtad-bok-om-allt-vi- vinner-pa-att-oversatta/ January 10, 2022. 

Lindqvist, Yvonne. 2021. Det sverigesvenska översättningsfältet och det skönlitterära översättarkapitalet. 15 översättares arbete med nutida spansk-karibisk litteratur som exempel. [The Swedish Literary Translation Field and the Literary Translation Capital] Finsk tidskrift. Kultur, Ekonomi, Politik. (2) 21. 7–35.

Lindqvist, Yvonne 2021. Institutional consecration of 15 Swedish translators – “Star translators” or not? Literary Translator Studies (Eds. Klaus Kaindl, Waltraud Kolb & Daniela Schlager). Amsterdam & New York: Benjamin Publishing. 137-154

Lindqvist, Yvonne. 2020 Att anlita översättning. Chaucer, Dryden, Arnold och Pound Med andra ord. Nr 104. 27–29.

Lindqvist, Yvonne. 2019. "Translation Bibliomigration. The case of French Caribbean Literature in Sweden". Meta. International Journal for Translation Studies. 600–629.

Lindqvist , Yvonne 2018. “Introduction to Lost and Found: Translation and Circulation”, i World Literatures: Exploring the Cosmopolitan-Vernacular Exchange. (Eds. Stefan Helgesson, Annika Mörte Alling, Yvonne Lindqvist and Helena Wulff Stockholm: Stockholm University Press. 289–295.

Lindqvist, Yvonne 2018. “Translation Bibliomigrancy: The Case of Contemporary Caribbean Literature in Scandinavia”  World Literatures: Exploring the Cosmopolitan-Vernacular Exchange. (Eds. Stefan Helgesson, Yvonne Lindqvist, and Helena Wulff.  Stockholm: Stockholm University Press. 295–309.

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Northern Crossings: Translation, Circulation and the Literary Semi-periphery

    2022. Chatarina Edfeldt (et al.).

    Book

    This open access book uses Swedish literature and the Swedish publishing field as recurring examples to describe and analyse the role of the literary semi-peripheral position in world literature from various perspectives and on meso, micro and macro levels, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. This includes the role of translation in the semi-periphery and the conditions under which literature travels to and from that position. The focus is not on Sweden, as such, but rather on the semi-peripheral transitional space as exemplified by the Swedish case.

    Consisting of three co-written chapters, this study sheds light on what might be called the semi-peripheral condition or the semi-periphery as an area of transition. As part of the Cosmopolitan and Vernacular Dynamics in World Literatures series, it makes continuous use of the concepts of 'cosmopolitan' and 'vernacular' – or rather, the processual terms, cosmopolitanization and vernacularization – which provide an overall structure to the analysis of literature and literary phenomena. In this way, the authors show that the semi-periphery is an ideal point of departure to further the understanding of world literature, because it is a place where the cosmopolitan (the literary universal) and the vernacular (the rootedness in a particular culture or place) interact in ways that have not yet been thoroughly explored.

    Read more about Northern Crossings

  • Tango för tre: En dansant festskrift till Cecilia Wadensjö

    2022. .

    Book (ed)

    Denna antologi handlar om tolkning och översättning och närliggande språkliga ämnen. Förutom forskning om och undervisning i olika typer av tolkning behandlar boken också t.ex. undertextning, romanöversättning, normativ språkkritik och vardagskosmopolitism i flerspråkiga samtal. Tango för tre är en festskrift till professor Cecilia Wadensjö.

    Read more about Tango för tre

  • Translation bibliomigrancy: the case of contemporary French Caribbean literature in Sweden

    2019. Yvonne Lindqvist. Meta : journal des traducteurs : translators' journal 64 (3), 600-629

    Article

    This paper examines consecration mechanisms contributing to translation taking place from one local periphery in the global translation field, notably from French Caribbean literature, to another (semi-) periphery, Swedish literature. The translation bibliomigrancy of Dany Laferrière, Maryse Condé and Patrick Chamoiseau is mapped out and tested against the Double Consecration Hypothesis, which states that writers from peripheral cultures, to be selected for translation into Swedish, have primarily to be consecrated within the center of their previous (colonial) culture in the global translation field and then within the centers of the British and American literary cultures. It is shown that double consecration constitutes a favorable condition for the peripheral writers studied to reach Swedish readers in translation. However, the success of these writers within Swedish literary culture heavily depends on their consecration within the Anglo-American culture, on the prestige of the publishing houses and on the involved translators’ possession of translation capital.

    Read more about Translation bibliomigrancy

  • Bibliomigrationsmönster från periferi till semiperiferi

    2018. Yvonne Lindqvist. Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap 1 (2), 90-104

    Article

    The aim of the article Bibliomigration from Periphery to (Semi)Periphery is threefold: firstly to describe the bibliomigration patterns of the Contemporary Spanish Caribbean Literature to Sweden, secondly to test the Double Consecration Hypothesis, and thirdly to discuss the importance of translation in relation to World Literature. The material studied consists of 25 novels written by 15 Spanish Caribbean authors from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic translated into Swedish during the period 1990–2015. The consecration processes of the involved cosmopolitan intermediaries in the study are reconstructed in order to map out the bibliomigration. It was brought to light that the Spanish literary consecration culture is pluri-centric and the Anglo American duo-centric, which ultimately affect the bibliomigration patterns to Sweden. Three patterns were discovered: One for Spanish Caribbean authors who writes in Spanish, one for Spanish Caribbean authors writing in English and one for literature written in Spanish, published in Spanish in Sweden and then translated into Swedish. In the first case nine out of then novels verified the Double Consecration Hypothesis. Hence it seems that Spanish Caribbean literature written in Spanish have to be consecrated primarily within the Spanish colonial and postcolonial literary centers and then within the American and British consecration centers in order to be selected for translation into Swedish. In the second case ten out of the 25 Spanish Caribbean novels were written in English, and thus not in need for double consecration to reach Sweden. In the last pattern consecration is local rather than cosmopolitan.

    Read more about Bibliomigrationsmönster från periferi till semiperiferi

  • Translation Bibliomigrancy

    2018. Yvonne Lindqvist. World Literatures, 295-309

    Chapter

    The chapter “Translation Bibliomigrancy” presents the theoretical framework for the study of the meeting of Caribbean and Scandinavian literature by means of translation. Bibliomigrancy, i.e. the dynamics of cosmopolitanising and vernacularising translation processes in world literatures, is a central concept in the study as well as The Double Consecration Hypothesis, according to which this literature needs to be consecrated primarily within respective dominant literary centre(s), and secondly within the Anglo-American literary culture before agents in Scandinavia consider a translation into the Scandinavian languages. Contending that translation is a form of literary consecration the study traces translations from the Caribbean French, English and Spanish languages to the Scandinavian Swedish, Danish and Norwegian languages during the period 1990–2010. Given the construction of the studied literary consecration cultures (mono-, duo- or pluri-centric), bibliomigrancy to the Scandinavian periphery will evince differentiated characteristics. The chapter discusses how cosmopolitanising and vernacularising translation dynamics influence bibliomigrancy and the hypothesised double consecration in the Scandinavian context.

    Read more about Translation Bibliomigrancy

  • World Literatures

    2018. Stefan Helgesson (et al.).

    Book (ed)

    Placing itself within the burgeoning field of world literary studies, the organising principle of this book is that of an open-ended dynamic, namely the cosmopolitan-vernacular exchange.

    As an adaptable comparative fulcrum for literary studies, the notion of the cosmopolitan-vernacular exchange accommodates also highly localised literatures. In this way, it redresses what has repeatedly been identified as a weakness of the world literature paradigm, namely the one-sided focus on literature that accumulates global prestige or makes it on the Euro-American book market.

    How has the vernacular been defined historically? How is it inflected by gender? How are the poles of the vernacular and the cosmopolitan distributed spatially or stylistically in literary narratives? How are cosmopolitan domains of literature incorporated in local literary communities? What are the effects of translation on the encoding of vernacular and cosmopolitan values?

    Ranging across a dozen languages and literature from five continents, these are some of the questions that the contributions attempt to address.

    Read more about World Literatures

  • Det skandinaviska översättningsfältet – finns det?

    2016. Yvonne Lindqvist. Språk & Stil (25), 69-87

    Article

    The proposed paper builds on the concept of global translation field (Casanova 2002; 2004, Heil- bron 1999; 2008, Sapiro 2002 & 2008) and explores the existence of a Scandinavian translation (sub)field – a relatively autonomous field in the periphery of the global translation field – which may provide an explanation for the peculiar fact that, in spite of their limited amount of speakers and peripheral positions, the Danish and Swedish languages are ranked among the 10 most signi- ficant source languages in the world today. The general translation rate, the non-translation rate, the top-5 source languages within the regional periphery and the position of the Scandinavian lang- uages as source languages in the global translation field are scrutinized. These variables reveal the constant interaction and power struggles between the Scandinavian languages and literatures thus forming a modern relatively autonomous Scandinavian translation field. Some rather strong evi- dence pointing to the central position of the Swedish language and literature in this local translation field in the global periphery are discussed in relation to the double consecration hypothesis (Lind- qvist 2012) in the closing section of the paper.

    Key words: Global translation field, central and peripheral positions, Scandinavian languages and literatures, Scandinavian translation field, Double consecration hypothesis. 

    Read more about Det skandinaviska översättningsfältet – finns det?

  • Kylie Kwong Crossover – En multimodal översättningsanalys av Kylie Kwongs kokbok Heart and Soul

    2012. Yvonne Lindqvist.

    Conference

    Artikeln handlar om TV-kocken Kylie Kwongs kokbok Heart and Soul (2002) och den svenska översättningen Med själ och hjärta (2004) (övs. Tove och Johan Janson) Den rapporterade undersökningen utröner dels hur Kylie Kwongs s.k. Persona konstrueras i källtexten via samspelet av text och bild, dels huruvida denna Persona förändras i måltexten i och med översättningen från engelska till svenska. Undersökningen har sin teoretiska hemvist inom den funktionella grammatiken (Halliday1994; Holmberg & Karlsson 2006; Kress & van Leeuwen 1996; Björkvall 2009) och inom översättningsvetenskapen (Toury1995; Lindqvist 2002). Syftet med studien är att kartlägga hur samspelet mellan text och bild påverkas av de svenska översättarnas valda översättnings- strategi.

    Read more about Kylie Kwong Crossover – En multimodal översättningsanalys av Kylie Kwongs kokbok Heart and Soul

  • Att skapa och översätta en persona – en multimodal  översättningsanalys av Nigella Bites.

    2011. Yvonne Lindqvist. Svenskans beskrivning 31. Umeå 2010, 205-218

    Conference

    Trots att kokbokens död har proklamerats av kritiker under minst ett decennium nu, fortsätter travarna av färgglada kokböcker varje år att växa sig höga på bokmässan i Göteborg. Det har sagts förut och det tål att sägas igen – globalt säljs varje dag 1,5 miljoner böcker inom ämnes-området måltidslitteratur. Kokboksmarknaden har globalt ökat med 5 till 10 % per år, medan den totala bokmarknaden istället har stagnerat. Och Sverige är det land i världen som ger ut den största mängden kokböcker per capita, tre gånger fler kokböcker per capita än i Tyskland och fyra gånger fler än i Frankrike. Måltidslitteraturen är den kvantitativt viktigaste enskilda kategorin inom svensk sakprosa och är därför en genre väl värd att undersöka.

             Föredraget presenterar några preliminära resultat från mitt nuvarande projekt Översättningens sociala praktiker som undersöker översättning av sakprosa, speciellt kokböcker. Undersökningens syfte är att kartlägga de översättningsnormer som styr kokboköversättarnas arbete. Ett första steg i undersökningen blir då att rekonstruera det svenska måltidslitteraturfältet under det senaste decenniet.

     Studien är teoretiskt förankrad i Even-Zohars polysystemteori (Even-Zohar 1990; Toury 1995, 1998) och Pierre Bourdieus kultursociologi (Bourdieu 1986, 1992; Gouanvic 1997, 1999; Heilborn 2008; Merkle 2008; Sapiro 2008). Projektet undersöker också några av de nationella och internationella konsekreringsprocesser, som är avgörande för hur sakprosatexter finner sin väg in i det svenska kulturella systemet via översättning (Casanova 1999, 2004).

    Read more about Att skapa och översätta en persona – en multimodal  översättningsanalys av Nigella Bites.

  • Dubbel konsekration – en förutsättning för svensk översättning       av utomeuropeisk litteratur?: Maryse Condé som exempel.

    2011. Yvonne Lindqvist. Språk & stil, ISSN 1101-1165 (21), 140-170

    Article

    This paper deals with the effects of the uneven flows of translations between language groups within the world system of translation. It examines the necessary consecration mechanisms for translation taking place from one periphery, notably from the French Caribbean literature to another periphery on the global translation field, the Swedish literature. The paper tests the hypotheses that a double consecration of dominant literatures is necessary for this kind of translation to take place. In the case of the translation of French Caribbean literature into Swedish, this kind of literature needs to be consecrated primarily within the French literary culture and secondly – due to the strong impact of British and American literature and culture in Sweden – within the British and American literary culture, consequently a double consecration. In examining the consecration mechanisms of the three novels of Maryse Condé translated into Swedish in the three involved cultures and in studying the paratexts of the French source text and the English and Swedish translations the hypotheses of the necessity of double consecration for this kind of literature to be translated into Swedish is confirmed. However, given the limited material of the study, further research is needed to verify the double consecration hypotheses put forward in the paper.

    Read more about Dubbel konsekration – en förutsättning för svensk översättning       av utomeuropeisk litteratur?

  • To Dress and Undress the Naked Chef – a Multimodal Translation Analysis of the first published Jamie Oliver Cookery Book in Sweden.

    2011. Yvonne Lindqvist. Vakki Symposium XXXI, 224-236

    Conference

    Artikeln presenterar en multimodal översättningsanalys av The Naked Chef (KT) och Den nakna kocken (MT) av Jamie Oliver. Analysen undersöker huruvida samspelet mellan de semiotiska resurserna text och bild förändras i och med översättnigen och vilken betydelse denna eventuella förändring får för hur den nakna kockens s k Persona konstrueras inom den svenska kulturen. Teoretisk bygger analysen på Hallidays funktionella grammatik (1994), Kress och van Leeuwens semiotiska bildanalyser (1996) och Tourys normbegrepp (1995) inom Translation Studies. Undersökningen visar att källtexten översatts med en adekvansinriktad översättningsstrategi. Små förändringar i konstruktionen av den nakna kockens persona på svenska kan dock skönjas. Källtextens spjuveraktiga pojkaktighet som i den textuella resursen uttrycks via språkliga slanguttryck mildras och feminiseras på svenska.

    Read more about To Dress and Undress the Naked Chef – a Multimodal Translation Analysis of the first published Jamie Oliver Cookery Book in Sweden.

  • Att manipulera matrisen

    2008. Yvonne Lindqvist. Språk & Stil 18, 187-208

    Article

    The paper examines the “crime fiction boom” and the cultural spaces from which translated crime fiction originates within the Swedish cultural system. This introduction contextualizes the Swedish translation through comparison with the English and French translations of the Spanish crime novel La caverna de las ideas. The study draws on the polysystem theory approach (Even-Zohar 1990, Toury 1995, 1998) and the cultural sociology of Pierre Bourdieu (Bourdieu 1986, 1992; Gouanvic 1997, 1999) in putting forward the hypotheses that the metatextual elements in the novel will be translated differently, depending on the cultural system within which the translators per- form their task. It is shown that the English translator manipulates the matricial norms of the source text to a greater extent than do the Swedish and French translators. In addition, the paper examines some of the international consecration processes within the global literary space (Casanova 1999), which made it possible for the Somoza crime novel to reach the Swedish literary market by means of translation.

    Read more about Att manipulera matrisen

  • Gränslösa texter

    2007. Yvonne Lindqvist.

    Book (ed)

    Antologin presenterar några perspektiv som översatta och tolkade texter kan studeras från. Perspektiven eller infallsvinklarna skiljer sig åt från artikel till artikel. samtliga författare anser dock att det är lika viktigt att studera det sammanhang där översättningarna blir till och tas emot som att studera de översatta texterna i sig.

    De åtta artiklarna tar bland annat upp skönlitterära översättningar av Nobelpristagaren Nadine Gordimer, sakprosa i produktbroschyrer och tolkens roll, här i en tv-intervju med Michail Gorbatjov. Boken vänder sig främst till studerande inom översättningsvetenskap och redan verksamma översättare men också till alla med intresse för översättarens arbete.

    Read more about Gränslösa texter

  • Maryse Condé and The Alternative Nobel Prize of 2018

    2023. Yvonne Lindqvist. Translation Flows, 149-163

    Chapter

    Inspired by the methodological framework of “histoire croisée”, this paper examines the bibliomigrancy of the French Caribbean author Maryse Condé. To this end, four major causal series of events leading up to her nomination and selection for the 2018 Alternative Nobel Prize in Literature are analyzed. The first causal series of events consists of the translation bibliomigrancy of French Caribbean fiction to Sweden during the past 40 years. The second causal series of events briefly covers the authorship of Maryse Condé and her reception in Sweden. The third causal series follows the effects and repercussions of the cancellation of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018, as well as the particular consequences concerning the reorganization of the Royal Swedish Academy. The fourth causal series of events entails the foundation of the “New Academy” and the Alternative Nobel Prize in Literature. Closing remarks discuss Maryse Condé’s chances of being awarded the regular Nobel Prize in Literature. 

    Read more about Maryse Condé and The Alternative Nobel Prize of 2018

  • Tre nyanser av adekvans: Om grader av källbundenhet i spänningsfältet mellan det vernakulära och det kosmopolitiska i tre svenska översättningar.

    2023. Yvonne Lindqvist. Språk och stil 33, 196-230

    Article

    It is well known that the Swedish literary culture is open and that the most common overall translation strategy for high prestige fiction is adequate, in the Toury sense (2012 p. 70). But are there different degrees of adequacy? And do translators favor vernacular or cosmopolitan stances in their overall adequate translations? Are there any signs of commercial vernacularism on the cover of the studied Caribbean novels translated from English, French and English/Spanish? 

    By employing the transformations reduction, substitution and retention, the results of the study show that retention is by far the most used transformation by the Swedish publishers and translators, concerning both the paratexts and translated texts. Commercial vernacularism is detectable on the covers. However, the strength of retention varies within the overall adequate translations; from an adequate translation conforming to Swedish expectancy norms for trans- lated high prestige fiction, which is employed by the translator of the novel Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, over a foreignizing translation strategy reminding the reader of the presence of the culturally Other, used by the translator of Maryse Condé’s novel Traversée de la mangrove, to the abusive fidelity translation challenging the tolerant Swedish reader’s expectancy norms and translation ethics reading the translation of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. The study shows that there are three nuances of adequacy in the studied material. 

    Read more about Tre nyanser av adekvans

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