School of Arts, Translation
Swansea University
Singleton Park
Swansea SA2 8PP

Email: 382862@swansea.ac.uk 

 

 

Working title	The Translation of Children’s Literature
Supervisors	Prof Duncan Large and Prof Andrew Rothwell
Start date	October 2006 (full time)
Completion	June 2009

My Research

My Ph.D. research is focused on the translation of children’s literature. I am studying English books translated primarily to Swedish and the books I have chosen at this point include Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Lemony Snicket’s series of books, Roald Dahl’s work, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. My particular interests are dialects, names, humour, expressive language, and various cultural, political, and religious issues.

My main methodology is in-depth textual analysis. In addition, I have interviewed the Swedish translators of Dahl’s and Snicket’s books, and Dahl’s Welsh translator, and I hope both to meet them again to continue our discussions and also to interview other translators of the works I have chosen. Their insight into what translatorial decisions they have made and why adds an extra beneficial layer to the textual analysis.

For my research I received a number of grants that enabled to travel to conferences and courses. I have also received a New Writer's bursary of the Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency Academi and a grant from the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation to translate a novel from Swedish.

I was the organizer of the Nordic Translation Conference, 6-8 March 2008, at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies of the University of London. The conference is the first of its kind to focus on the Nordic languages and their translation and will feature academics, translators, publishers, writers, students, and others interested in the topic. For this conference I obtained support from the Nordic Culture Fund, UCL Department of Scandinavian Studies, and Swansea University.

My Publications

Sole editor of Northern Lights: Translation in the Nordic Countries, selected papers from the Nordic Translation Conference, published by Peter Lang, spring 2009

“In Name Only? Translating Names in Children’s Literature” in Northern Lights: Translation in the Nordic Countries, published by Peter Lang, spring 2009

“Life is Just an Allusion” forthcoming in From Colonialism to the Contemporary: Intertextual Transformations in World Children’s and Youth Literature, published by Cambridge University Press, spring 2009

“The Translation of Dialects in Children’s Literature: Two Books, Three Translations, and Five Strategies” forthcoming in Translating Dialects and Languages of Minorities: Challenges and Solutions, spring 2009

My Presentations

“Not a Piece of (Sandwich) Cake,” Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study conference, Madison, Wisconsin, April-May 2009

“The Conservative Era,” Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study conference, Madison, Wisconsin, April-May 2009

“Protecting Children: Changing Trends in Translating Children’s Literature,” Translation Right or Wrong, Dublin, March 2009

“Equality Through Literature: How Non-Heterosexualities are Portrayed in Children’s Literature,” LGBT Lives: Sexual/Gender Dissidence over the Life Course, Edinburgh, October 2008

Invited guest lecture on “Child’s Play: Translating Figurative Language in Children’s Literature,” Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, September 2008

“Translating Children’s Literature: Issues of Power,” Power: Forms, Dynamics, Consequences Conference, Tampere, Finland, September 2008

“Life is Just an Allusion: Translating Allusions in Children’s Literature,” International Board on Books for Children and Young Adults Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 2008 (revised version of paper given August 2008)

“It’s Just an Allusion: Allusions in Children’s Literature,” International Federation of Translators Conference, Shanghai, China, August 2008

“Writing and Translating Children’s Literature: Issues of Power,” Writers’ and Literary Translators’ International Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, July 2008

“Translating Neologisms in Children’s Literature,” research seminar at Swansea University, May 2008

‘In Name Only?: Translating Names in Children's Literature’, Nordic Translation Conference, University of London, 6-8 March 2008.

‘Power in Translation: Postcolonial Theories and Children’s Literature’, Translation: Theory and Practice, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 23-24 February 2008.

‘Translation in MFA Programs’, moderator of a panel, Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, New York City, January 2008.

‘The Translation of Dialects in Children’s Literature: Issues of Power’, 18th Congress of International Research Society for Children’s Literature, Kyoto, 25-29 August 2007.

‘The Translation of Wordplay’, The British Comparative Literature Association XI International Conference, London, England, 2-5 July 2007.

‘Translating Dialects in Children's Literature’, Fourth International Conference on The Child and the Book, Istanbul, 30 March - 1 April 2007.

My Background

I completed the BA in literature and creative writing from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, USA in 2000 and the MFA in fiction from Queens University in North Carolina, USA in 2004. I taught English in Sweden for many years and continue to teach English online. I have also been a freelance writer for years and have published dozens of articles on topics including translation, restaurant reviews, writing, book reviews, teaching, Scandinavia, and so on. I am also the author of a textbook, Ready, Set, Teach! Ready-Made, Creative Lessons for the English Classroom, which was published in Scandinavia in 2005. I  work as a Swedish to English translator, a copy editor, a writer, and an English teacher.

I have my own personal website and maintain a blog on translation.

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Last modified 30 July 2009