Research project The Creative Writing Process in Self-Translated Texts: A Swedish Case Study

In order to investigate the creative writing process (from the planning stage to the translated text) in self-translated texts, it is vital to have access to extensive source and reception material (letters, drafts, press). When case studies beyond the dominant world languages are scarce, as in Sweden, it is usually due to a lack of source material and methods.

With access to new archival material on Stiernstedt, digital tools and novel genetic methods, the project provides new results and contributes to theory and method development in the field of Self-Translation and Genetic Translation Studies. In addition, Stiernstedt’s French texts will be made publicly available in the Literature Bank.

The project runs over three years at 50%. It applies qualitative, quantitative and comparative digital methods with a focus on the creative writing process. The first study examines how Stiernstedt negotiates her translation work with the publisher, while the second study investigates how she uses the reception of her Swedish works to rewrite them in French. Applying a new digital method for text comparison, the last study analyses how Swedish source texts are converted into French target texts.