Translating the literatures of stateless cultures in Spain: translation grants and institutional support at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Abstract

Literary translation plays a crucial role in the internationalisation of cultural and publishing markets. It constitutes a marker of status in the economic global system, therefore contributing to cultural diplomacy. As such, source-culture institutions often offer support policies to help disseminate their literatures abroad. Focusing on contemporary multilingual Spain, this paper investigates the translation policies of the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia and Valencia, where literature in Spanish coexists with the literatures written in the co-official languages in these regions, paying special attention to the translation grants funding schemes. Through the comprehensive study of the different stages of this funding scheme–from the design and publication of the translation grants to the allocation of funding, also including the participation of the four funding institutions at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2018–we combine quantitative and qualitative methods with ethnographic research to offer unique insights into the extent to which translation grants from each of the source cultures can successfully contribute to the internationalisation of literatures in these stateless cultures and less translated languages. Our research also offers revealing information about the particularities of the collaboration between institutional funding bodies and the private publishing industry in these regions.