Fattigdomens hjälplöshet – too hot to handle? Hur Astrid Lindgrens böcker om Madicken översatts i USA och Storbritannien

Abstract

In children’s literature, power relations are fundamentally assymetrical. This is furthermore accentuated in the process of translation where translation norms, social and cultural norms as well as the power game of adult authorities play a major part. The Swedish author Astrid Lindgren’s ideology is based on the notion that no aspects of life should be hidden from the child, making her thematize as well as break taboos in her writing for children. There has been extensive research on Lindgren’s authorship per se, but research on translations of her books seems to be limited. The fact that discussions on taboo elements in children’s books in general, and Lindgren’s source texts and target texts in particular are sparse indicates that this is a vast – and interesting – field still to be explored. This paper focuses on the American and British translations of Lindgren’s Madicken (1960) and Madicken och Junibackens Pims (1976) in order to find out why and to what extent these books were censored in translation.Keywords: children’s literature, translation, norms, taboo elements, censorship