Literary Translation as an Instrument of Slovenian Cultural Diplomacy with Particular Regard to Translations in German

Abstract

The article discusses translation policy in Slovenia as part of the country’s cultural diplomacy. Translations of Slovenian literature, especially into German and English, are among the goals of the country’s cultural policy, in part because of Slovenia’s upcoming role as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2023. The article analyses the role of the financial support for and promotion of translations from Slovenian into foreign languages by the Slovenian Book Agency and the Trubar Foundation. The study of subsidies for translations into German, English, French, Italian, Croatian, and Hungarian shows that while the number of subsidies for translations into German and English is high, as expected, Croatian takes the leading role among the target languages studied. This underscores the importance of the still-vibrant social and political ties stemming from the historical context of Yugoslavia. In addition to the crucial role of subsidies in exporting literature from a peripheral language such as Slovenian, the translation process and the promotion of literature depend to a considerable extent on other market actors-as the interviews with three literary experts showed.

Keywords

• literary translation
• translation policy
• cultural diplomacy
• subsidies
• Slovenian Book Agency (JAK)