Le merveilleux voyage de l’album sériel entre la France et la Scandinavie

Abstract

This article studies the translation flows of picture book series between Scandinavia (Sweden and Norway) and France between 2011 and 2021. According to studies on literary flows, countries having so-called « dominated » and « peripheral » or « semi-peripheral » languages, for example Norway and Sweden, should import more literature from the core (France) than the other way around. However, the present study shows that this theory does not hold water regarding picture books for children aged 3-6 years, where the literary flows from the core to the (semi-)periphery are uneven, or even non-existing. We are able to ascertain that the status of the picture book series is maintained as they cross the borders between France and Scandinavia. Moreover, the series translated to French are almost always characterized by a high literary legitimacy (symbolic recognition of authors and works, limited number of titles per series, affirmation of graphic and authorial creativity), with often a representation of a Scandinavian perspective. The fact that the books originally are part of a series is rarely foregrounded as a marketing device in Scandinavia, but on the contrary, this could be the case in France. The translation flows concerning picture book series show that seriality, sales figures and literary legitimacy are compatible.

Keywords

• serial picturebook
• translation
• legitimization