Jana Rüegg

Short presentation

PhD in comparative literature, affiliated with The Section for the Sociology of Literature.

In December 2023, I defended my PhD thesis, Publishing Translations. Flows, Patterns, and Power-Dynamics in the Swedish Book Market after 1970.

I am interested in publishing studies, translation studies, and children's literature. An abbreviated English version of my study Nobelbanor has been published in the anthology Literary Prizes and Cultural Transfer (Groningen, 2021).

Biography

Networks

Member of SNÖ, Swedish Network for Translation Studies, since 2017.

Member of ENLIGHT/U4 Society's cluster Cultural Transfer since 2016.

Research

Current Research

My PhD thesis is divided into two studies. The first study investigates the Swedish publishing of translated prose fiction from French, German, and Spanish 1970-2016. Which publishers have been important for the publishing? Which translators have been vital in the cultural transfer process? The study highlights mechanisms of translated literature in a Swedish publishing context.

The second study Nobelbanor [Nobel Trajectories] examines the Swedish publishing of translated high prestige ficition via the Nobel Prize in literature. By using a statistical and bibliometric methodology, all printed editions in Swedish translation (almost 1,300 editions) by the Nobel Prize laureates in Literature 1970–2016 have been collected and studied. Theoretical approaches have been inspired by David Damrosch, Pascale Casanova, and Pierre Bourdieu. This study investigates a quarter of a century of the Swedish book market where many changes occured, highlighting structural changes in publishing practices and showing the importance of cultural transmitters, e.g. publishers and translators, for high prestige literature in translation.

Research Interests

Sociology of literature, publishing studies, world literature, translation studies, and children's literature.