Images of the North: An Analysis of Book Covers of Swedish Crime Fiction in Greek and Spanish Translation

This study is an analysis of the book cover images of a selection of Swedish crime literature, published in Greece and the Spanish-speaking world in the period of 2000-2017. Covers are crucial to the paratextual signal system (Genette, 1991); departing from theories on paratext within translation studies, we aim to compare the original book covers to the covers of the translated volumes. Do the Greek and Spanish book markets emphasise the stereotypical images of the North that have been identified in studies on borealism (Chartier, 2008)? The image covers of the original and the translated editions were examined by means of a content analysis, complemented by an empirical study. The empirical study consist of anonymously answered questionnaires with questions about the book covers as well as the anonymous respondents’ background information. The examination of the sample did not unambiguously indicate that the translated editions draw more heavily on the Nordic origin. Similarly, not all covers of the translations revealed belonging to the crime genre.

本研究针对2000年至2017年间于希腊及西班牙语世界出版的一批瑞典犯罪文学作品的封面图像展开分析。封面是副文本信号系统（paratextual signal system，热奈特，1991）的核心要素，本研究立足翻译研究领域的副文本（paratext）理论，旨在比对原作与译作的书籍封面。本研究旨在探讨：希腊与西班牙图书市场是否会强化北欧意象的刻板化呈现？该探讨基于北方主义（borealism，夏蒂埃，2008）相关研究的既有发现。本研究采用内容分析法对原作与译作的书籍封面图像进行考察，并辅以实证研究。该实证研究通过匿名问卷开展，问卷内容涵盖书籍封面相关问题，以及匿名受访者的背景信息。对样本的分析并未明确显示，译作更侧重凸显其北欧原产地属性。同理，并非所有译作封面都明确体现出犯罪文学的体裁属性。