Institute of World Literature SAS
Topic
Translations of Contemporary Slovak Literature into English and World Literature
PhD. program
Literature Studies
Year of admission
2025
Name of the supervisor
Dr. Dobrota Pucherová, D.Phil., Privatdoz.
Contact:
Receiving school
Filozofická fakulta UPJŠ
Annotation
The main aim of the dissertation will be to map and critically reflect on the position of translations of Slovak literature after 1989 in the English-speaking cultural space. We will investigate how Slovak literature as a "small literature" overcomes the inequalities created by the hegemony of the "big literatures" and the globalization of the book market (which are visible in theory, the reception of translations and the practice of book publishing) and negotiates its position in the transnational literary space. We will be interested in strategies for overcoming this unequal dynamic between the (cultural, economic and geographical) 'centre' and the 'periphery' (Itamar Even-Zohar 1990), and how these small literatures enter this 'game' (Chitnis- Stougaard-Nielsen 2020), learn and influence its rules, and become full-fledged players. How can small literatures become part of "world literature" (Damrosch 2003) or "the world republic of letters" (Casanova 1999) without being forced to replicate popular stereotypes of small nations (Norris 2020)? How is it possible to confront the dominance of the major literatures from the position of "small literatures" and maintain our own values (Craig 2020) or even break down the center-periphery dichotomy that some critics argue is overcome in an age of constant transnational information flow (Tihanov 2014)?