At the NYRblog Tim Parks frequently muses about the global literary marketplace and the world republic of letters -- far off the mark, as often as not, I find, but I do find his most recent post, Most Favored Nations intriguing.
Here he suggests that the spread of English-language knowledge has lead to a concurrent interest in English-language literature (generally in translation), as:
Interesting also the observation that:
But Parks' conclusion is worth thinking about:
Here he suggests that the spread of English-language knowledge has lead to a concurrent interest in English-language literature (generally in translation), as:
Inevitably, as the number of people speaking English increases, so do the sales of novels in English. But not enormously. The surprise is that increased knowledge of English has also brought a much more marked increase in sales of literature written in English but read in translation in the local language. When you learn a language you don't just pick up a means of communication, you buy into a culture, you get interested.(Does that help explain the lack of interest in literature in translation in the US (and UK) ? Since few bother learning another language they have no interest into buying into any other culture ? Among a din of "U.S.A. ! U.S.A. !" that sounds almost plausible .....)
Interesting also the observation that:
these days the dice are so heavily loaded in favor of English-language novels that the question of quality is almost a moot point.(I'd suggest that, regarding the quality-question, given the incredibly mediocre pop-fiction phenomena that are translated from other languages -- Spanish conspiracy-thrillers with a religious twist and the second tier of Nordic crime fiction currently seem particularly en vogue -- there are other marketplace factors that are also at work here regardless of what language a book was originally written in, reflecting the failures of the (industrial) international publishing sector, which is fatally prone to jumping on artificially hyped bandwagons -- a third-rate novel such as Strindberg's Star by Jan Wallentin is just one example among many non-English titles where the question of quality was also a moot point.)
But Parks' conclusion is worth thinking about:
we have a situation where literary fiction is coming to serve a different purpose and to be experienced differently in the different national communities.(As noted, I don't necessarily agree with Parks, but I'm very pleased that he continues to write about these questions and issues, and that this has led to some discussion -- and will, I hope, lead to more.)