Table 2-2 Narrative fiction for girls: Total first editions Flemish vs Dutch.
2.2.3. Trends in source languages
In this section I first provide an overview of the distribution of translations from different languages within the Flemish and Dutch market. In a further step I analyse the overall development of importation from different language groups for narrative fiction for girls. Finally, I look at translations from English in detail because English as source language is dominant and all my case studies in the following chapters will be taken from English.
Overall, translated work makes up a substantial and increasing proportion of literature published in the Netherlands and Flanders. Yet, this phenomenon does not necessarily imply an openness to other cultures, as analysis has shown. Sandra van Voorst studied the total production of first editions of translations in the Netherlands according to the source language translated from for the period 1946-1970, taking samples at five year intervals. Translations mainly originated from three source languages (English, German and French) and grew in absolute numbers for these languages over the period. Translations from English constitute between 45.5% (in 1946) and 67.8% (in 1966) of the total translated work, while translations from German make up between 15-25%, and those from French around 11%. Translations from other languages decline over time from 16.5% in 1946 to 6.6% in 1960 to rally slightly to 9.5% in 1970 (Voorst 1997: 22- 23X
Further figures for total translated book production in 1989 and 1990 show that translations from English still account for 65% of the total, those from German 16%, those from other languages 11% and those from French 8% of the total number of translations (Fens et al. 1991: 49). Numbers for the sub-category translated fiction (including both adult and children’s literature) from 1946 to 1970 produced similar results: tremendous growth in translations from English, slight increases for translations from German and French, and a small number of translations from a wide variety of other languages (Voorst 1997: 25-28)^\
Figures for the category ‘children’s literature’ from 1946 to 1970, again based on samples at five year intervals, similarly show the prominent share of translations from English varying from 60.3% in 1950 to 75% in 1966. Translations from German decrease over time from 22% to 12%, whereas translations from French are few. The number of translations from other languages is also more limited and is dominated by translations from Scandinavian languages (Voorst 1997: 36-37^^). Figures for the early 1990s for children’s literature in the Netherlands and Flanders confirm these trends. Carlo van Baelen notes that within this category two out of every three books are translated from English, with numbers of translations from German about equal to numbers of translations from French (Baelen 1994: 9). My own earlier unpublished research on children’s literature in Flanders for the period 1990-1994 also indicates that translations from English are dominant (72%), followed by those from German (15%) and Swedish (6%) while translations from French and other Romance languages are infrequent (5%) and those from other source languages practically non-existent (Desmet 1995: 9). This suggests that compared to adult literature children’s literature is more limited in the variety of source languages from which translations are imported into the culture.
^^There are m any special publishers’ series in the N etherlands w hich focus on adult literatiu-e from other languages and cultures in translation. These include ‘De Russische B ibliotheek’ by Van O orschot, and the ‘Finse Bibliotheek’, ‘Slavische C ahiers’, ‘Scandinavische reeks’ and ‘Italiaanse B ibliotheek’ all published by M eulenhoff from 1980 onwards (Voorst 1997: 28, K uitert 1997: 332-333). F or a discussion o f the im portation o f Spanish and Latin American adult literature in the N etherlands see Steenm eijer 1989.
^ ^ e information in this book contains a discrepancy betw een the text and the table as the text talks about fiction for children and the table has as heading non-fiction. An e-m ail conversation with the author (26 April 2001) clarified that the table heading is wrong and that the figures provided are for children’s fiction.
Languages
English German French Scandinavian Other Total Year 1946 2 0 1 1 0 4 1947 6 2 1 2 0 11 1948 11 3 1 14 0 29 1949 3 2 0 4 0 9 1 1950 6 5 4 3 0 18 ' 1951 4 0 0 4 0 8 1952 8 5 2 4 0 19 1953 6 3 0 2 0 11 1954 6 0 2 2 0 10 1955 6 5 1 6 0 18 1956 12 17 1 4 0 34 1957 24 19 3 7 1 54 1958 14 14 5 2 2 37 1959 24 16 7 5 0 52 1960 17 10 13 2 1 43 1961 32 16 6 7 0 61 1962 13 13 8 8 0 42 1963 13 8 10 4 0 35 1964 26 7 6 9 1 49 1965 14 15 7 2 0 38 1966 14 6 7 2 0 29 1967 11 2 2 0 12 27 1968 16 4 1 2 12 35 1969 7 4 2 4 4 21 1970 6 5 3 3 1 18 1971 7 6 4 10 3 30 1972 11 5 11 4 0 31 1973 9 11 10 4 0 34 1974 13 4 2 9 1 29 1975 15 4 1 6 2 28 1976 18 10 1 6 0 35 1977 19 25 3 5 0 52 1978 24 22 3 1 1 51 1979 26 17 1 5 3 52 1980 23 22 2 5 2 54 1981 14 19 5 3 7 48 1982 14 5 5 12 0 36 1983 12 7 2 10 1 32 1984 18 13 18 10 1 60 1985 16 3 4 3 3 29 1986 22 5 4 9 0 40 1987 6 7 1 5 0 19 1988 29 10 3 9 1 52 1989 74 5 3 4 1 87 1990 53 7 1 4 11 76 1991 52 7 2 3 2 66 1992 60 13 5 4 5 87 1993 63 8 1 2 1 75 1994 39 7 5 5 3 59 1995 37 13 6 3 3 62 Total 975 436 196 244 85 1936
The source languages from which translated narrative fiction for girls is imported are shown in Table 3-1 above which indicates the numbers for all language groups for every year in the period 1946-1995^^ For the fifty year period there are 975 books translated from all varieties of English, 436 from German, 244 from Scandinavian languages, 196 from French and 85 books from other languages. Proportionally this means that over the entire period 50% of translated books come from English-speaking cultures, 22.5% from G erman, 12.6% from Scandinavia, 10% from French and about 4% from other languages. In practice, then, about 80% of titles come from the three languages (English, French and German) identified above as the major contributors to translated work in the Netherlands and Flanders. The dominance of these languages can be partly explained by the fact that most publishers and editors have a relatively good command of these languages which makes it easier to select texts for translation from these languages and to find qualified translators to undertake translations. The three languages are also spoken in countries which are geographically close to Flanders and the Netherlands. The absence of translations from other languages can be related to the fact that fewer qualified readers and translators, who would be able to provide publishers and editors with book reports and initiate translations, exist for other languages, whether European languages or more exotic languages from Africa, Asia, Central and South America (see also Voorst 1997: 28, Steenmeijer 1989: 77).
There are wide variations in the numbers of translations from the different source languages over the years. Any large number of translations from a particular language in any given year is often related to the publication of fiction series or the development of publishers’ series as will be demonstrated below. It is clear, however, that translations from English are always dominant. In the first decade there is a low but steady output of books for girls translated from English. From 1956 to 1968 there is a marked increase in the number of books being published which is partly explained by the pocket books of the Prisma-Juniores series brought out by Spectrum and also those published in the
noted previously, the total num ber o f first edition translations in this table (1936) is higher than the total n u m b er o f first edition translations in Table 1-7 (1933). This is due to the fact that a num ber o f collections com bine narratives from different source languages and therefore these collections have been counted more than once. This is the case for the years 1978, 1980 and 1981 which all have one volume more than in Table 1-7.
Valkenserie by Het Goede Boek. The period 1969-1973, when the recession was at its strongest (of. Zanden 1998), shows a dip in numbers o f titles per year, but from 1974 onwards numbers increase again and stay around 20 titles per year. The next major change occurs in 1988 when the number of translations from English is constantly high at around 50 titles per year, even as high as 74 in 1989, although numbers drop below 40 in 1994-95. The increase in this last decade is partly explained by the large number of fiction series with many titles which are published by the Dutch publisher Kluitman and the Flemish publisher Deltas (see also below 2.2.4 and 2.2.5).
Translations from German also show low output after the war up until 1955, followed by a sustained increase in the next ten years which is in line with general economic development. This increase is also partly related to the publication of fiction series by different publishers. From 1956-59 Callenbach produces many titles in fiction series such as the Elke series and the Pony series. Gottmer publishes the Gabi series and many publishers bring out different editions of Johanna Spyri’s Heidi books. From 1966 onwards numbers fall until 1975, but reach double digit figures from 1976 to 1981. This is again mainly due to the publication of various fiction series, now by the Dutch publisher Westfriesland and the Flemish Zuid-Nederlandse Uitgeverij. Translations from German decline over the next fifteen years, although a number of individual years still produce double digit figures.
Translations from French are generally below those from German and in many years there is no production or minimal production of one or two titles (for example 1956, 1968, 1975, 1987, 1993 among others). The few years when translations from French are high are all related to the publication of either publishers’ series, such as M eulenhoff s Maraboe-pockets blauwe reeks in the early sixties, or various fiction series, such as the Marjolein, Poly, Caroline and Sissi series in the early seventies and the Candy series in
1984, all by Zuid-Nederlandse Uitgeverij.
Translations from Scandinavian countries, which include Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, are slightly above those from French and increased numbers are similarly often related to fictional series with many titles being released at the same time. In this group
for the overall period translations from Sweden dominate with 160 titles, followed by 61 works from Denmark, 22 books from Norway and only 1 title from Finland.
Translations from other languages include those from Italian (34), Spanish (14), Portuguese (3), Czech (5), Hungarian (1), Polish (1), Hebrew (1), Frisian (3) and unknown language sources (8). This group also encompasses titles which were translated from Swedish through English (10), from Japanese through English (3), from Greek through English (1), and from Danish through German (1). Figures for translations from other languages are generally low and show great variety over the years with many years showing zero production (especially up to 1956). The high numbers in 1967-69 are entirely due to the Caroline publishers’ series by Nederlandse Keurboekerij and Goudvink which contains texts from different authors, all translated from Italian. Ten of the eleven titles in 1990 belong to a series of Swedish books which were translated through English. Data on translations from other languages suggests a rather haphazard pattern of importation.
So far I conclude that high numbers of books in any particular year and for any language are usually related to the publication of a number of different fiction series or publishers’ series by one or more publishers. I have also indicated a number of trends in the importation of translated work from the different language groups, but figures per decade provide a clearer picture of the varying importation of narrative fiction for girls (see Table 3-2 and Graph 3-1 below).
In absolute numbers (see Table 3-2 upper part) the translations from English follow the general pattern: up from the first to the second decade, dip in the recession decade (1966- 1975) and then a continuous growth in numbers over the next two decades. Translations from German follow this pattern except for a dip in numbers in the fifth decade. The pattern for translations from French demonstrates the rise from the first to second decade, but then fall, remain stable in the fourth decade and fall further. Translations from Scandinavian languages follow an up-down-up-down pattern between the decades but variation in numbers is less extreme. Translations from other languages show more extreme variation in number of titles over the decades.