Images of the North: An Analysis of Book Covers of Swedish Crime Fiction in Greek and Spanish Translation

Marianna Smaragdi - Lund University, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University

Ingela Johansson - Lund University, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University

This study is an analysis of the book cover images of a selection of Swedish crime literature, published in Greece and the Spanish-speaking world in the period of 2000-2017. Covers are crucial to the paratextual signal system (Genette, 1991); departing from theories on paratext within translation studies, we aim to compare the original book covers to the covers of the translated volumes. Do the Greek and Spanish book markets emphasise the stereotypical images of the North that have been identified in studies on borealism (Chartier, 2008)? The image covers of the original and the translated editions were examined by means of a content analysis, complemented by an empirical study. The empirical study consist of anonymously answered questionnaires with questions about the book covers as well as the anonymous respondents’ background information. The examination of the sample did not unambiguously indicate that the translated editions draw more heavily on the Nordic origin. Similarly, not all covers of the translations revealed belonging to the crime genre.