Springer Literary Translation and Cultural Mediators in 'Peripheral' Cultures: Customs Officers or Smugglers? (New Comparisons in World Literature)

This book sets the grounds for a new approach exploring cultural mediators as key figures in literary and cultural history. It proposes an innovative conceptual and methodological understanding of the figure of the cultural mediator, defined as a cultural actor active across linguistic, cultural and geographical borders, occupying strategic positions within large networks and being the carrier of cultural transfer. Many studies on translation and cultural mediation privileged the major metropolis of Paris, London, and New York as centres of cultural production and translation. However, other cities and megacities that are not global centres of culture also feature vibrant translation scenes. This book abandons the focus on ‘innovative’ centres and ‘imitative’ peripheries and follows processes of cultural exchange as they develop. Thus, it analyses the role of cultural mediators as customs officers or smugglers (or both in different proportions) in so-called ‘peripheral’ cultures and offers insights into an under-analysed body of actors and institutions promoting intercultural transfer in often multilingual and less studied venues such as Trieste, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Lima, Lahore, or Cape Town. Review “Due to the book’s innovative multidimensional and multilingual approach, together with its insightful contribution to ongoing debates about actor-network theory (ANT) and gender issues, it can be recommended for scholars working not only in Translation Studies, but also in interdisciplinary studies on culture and society in general.” (Ekaterina Grineva, Connections, January 29, 2021) “This book is quite valuable for readers interested in world literature, translation, cultural history, or cultural transfer to unravel extensive cultural movements across languages by mediators of multiple roles in peripheral cultures in discursive and nondiscursive modes.” (Jianwei Zheng and Wenjun Fan, International Journal of Communication, Vol. 14, 2020) From the Back Cover This book sets the grounds for a new approach exploring cultural mediators as key figures in literary and cultural history. It proposes an innovative conceptual and methodological understanding of the figure of the cultural mediator, defined as a cultural actor active across linguistic, cultural and geographical borders, occupying strategic positions within large networks and being the carrier of cultural transfer. Many studies on translation and cultural mediation privileged the major metropolis of Paris, London, and New York as centres of cultural production and translation. However, other cities and megacities that are not global centres of culture also feature vibrant translation scenes. This book abandons the focus on ‘innovative’ centres and ‘imitative’ peripheries and follows processes of cultural exchange as they develop. Thus, it analyses the role of cultural mediators as customs officers or smugglers (or both in different proportions) in so-called ‘peripheral’ cultures and offers insights into an under-analysed body of actors and institutions promoting intercultural transfer in often multilingual and less studied venues such as Trieste, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Lima, Lahore, or Cape Town. About the Author Diana Roig-Sanz is a Ramón y Cajal senior research fellow at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain, and a Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Internet Institute, at the University of Oxford, UK. Her research interests include cultural history and sociology of translation and digital humanities and big data approaches applied to the study of translation and cultural history.  Reine Meylaerts is Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies at KU Leuven, Belgium, where she teaches European Literature, Comparative Literature and Translation and Plurilingualism in Literature. Her current research interests concern translation policy, intercultural mediation and transfer in multilingual cultures, past and present