Translated literature as just another media frame : An imagological approach to translation and media

摘要

Within the diversified world of Comparative Literature, the imagological approach or branch (clearly rooted in literary studies) until now has been used in a relatively small research community. However, imagology has gone through a knowledge systematizing phase (see e.g. Beller & Leerssen 2007) and now clearly positions itself as a comparative “theory of cultural or national stereotypes, not a theory of cultural or national identity" (Leerssen) that focuses on the discursive practices. My presentation will make use of the imagological approach to combine literature in translation with the framing principle as used in media studies (with interdisciplinary questions about the common grounds of focalization, perspective and framing). Research on the image building forces of translated literary texts in the media complements existing imagological research. To what extent does or can translation contribute to the relative comparability of literature(s), particularly in an international (mass) media and geographical context where socio-political and cultural-linguistic sensitivities correlate? This literary and media perspective will be illustrated by both a historical case study (19th century Dutch-German) and a contemporary example (Belgian press, with the complex combination of an intranational and cross-cultural situation).