Aleksis Kivi and/as world literature
By: by Douglas Robinson
Series: Approaches to Translation Studies -- 44; Approaches to translation studies -- v. 44.
Publisher: Brill
Published: 2017
Place of publication: Leiden; Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 374
ISBN-13: 9789004340213; 9789004340268
Subjects: Translations; Criticism and interpretation; Literature; History and criticism; Translating and interpreting
Description: "Aleksis Kivi (1834-1872) is Finland's greatest writer. His great 1870 novel The Brothers Seven has been translated 58 times into 34 languages. Is he world literature, or not? In Aleksis Kivi and/as World Literature Douglas Robinson uses this question as a wedge for exploring the nature and nurture of world literature, and the contributions made by translators to it. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's notion of major and minor literature, Robinson argues that translators have mainly 'majoritized' Kivi -- translated him respectfully -- and so created images of literary tourism that ill suit recognition as world literature. Far better, he insists, is the impulse to minoritize -- to find and celebrate the minor writer in Kivi, who 'sends the major language racing' "--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-352) and index.