A Book in a Thousand. Translating Dutch (Post-)Colonial Literature in the Late Fifties: Maria Dermoût’s The Ten Thousand Things In the U.S. and Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the successful translation and reception of Maria Dermoût’s De tienduizend dingen (1955), most particularly in the U.S. and Italy: a quite unique case of a Dutch book which has found its way to world literature. In the late Fifties, this beautifully crafted literary work about the faded world of the Dutch Molucca’s prior to WWII, could reckon on sympathy, empathy and interest in different countries. In the U.S., the ongoing decolonization process found a certain support, while Italy did its best to fully erase all traces of its colonial past and only few people with colonial roots tried to keep them alive. The ambivalent, liminar status of this fascinating book, written from a distant elsewhere by a displaced Eurasian author, can explain its appeal to translators Hans Koning and Quirino Maffi – both displaced, too – and international audiences.