Prestigious publishing in the semi-periphery: Swedish publishing of African Nobel laureates in literature after 1970

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Nobel Prize in literature can be used as a tool for selecting high prestige literature, i.e., consecrated and canonised literature. This paper examines the Swedish publishing of six Nobel Prize in Literature laureates 1970–2016 that have a connection to an African country: John Maxwell Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Doris Lessing, Naguib Mahfouz, and Wole Soyinka. By examining all Swedish editions of the laureates, their respective publishing trajectories can be explored, which enables the study of publishing practices of high prestige literature in the Swedish semi-peripheral language space. The publishing trajectory of Wole Soyinka is interesting, since he was introduced in Swedish by the independent publishing house Cavefors förlag. Cavefors was important as a publisher of African literature in Sweden, and was invested in ‘the African question’. Cavefors was able to stabilise their financial situation thanks to the Swedish state financial subsidy for translated and literary valuable fiction, introduced in 1975. All these aspects play an important part in understanding the mechanisms activated by the Nobel Prize and its consequences for the publishing of translated high prestige literature in the Swedish context.