Translation Bibliomigrancy: The Case of Contemporary Caribbean Literature in Scandinavia

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.