On Pluralism and Relevance in World Literary Transfers: Some Reflections on the Mapping of Contemporary Swahili Literary Extranslations into Italian, English, and German

Abstract

ABSTRACT While there is increasing interest in translation into Swahili, literary translation from this language into other ones has not yet received sufficient scholarly attention. This article outlines a current research project that aims at mapping contemporary literary translations (from the 1970s onward) from Swahili into Italian, German, and English, exploring the role of the network of agents of translation in the exportation of Swahili literature—a literary exchange subject to the logic of (not solely) cultural power—and the influence of market constraints on different kinds of translation practices. What can we learn about the logic of cultural exportation in the global literary space by studying these Swahili extranslation fluxes? Answering this demonstrates how international discussions on transnational literary exchanges also require us to evaluate their asymmetric conceptualizations and terminology.