Anja van de Pol-Tegge studied Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). In 2021, she received her PhD in Literary Studies under the joint supervision of the VUB and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
In 2023, her monograph was published in Open Access:
Belgische Literaturen in deutscher Übersetzung. Kulturelle und historische Verflechtungen von 1945 bis zur Gegenwart [Belgian Literatures in German Translation. Cultural and Historical Interconnections from 1945 to the Present] (Transcript-Verlag, series: Interculturality),
This is the first systematic study on the translation of literature from Belgium that takes into account both the source languages French and Dutch. The text corpus consists of works by Marie Gevers, Louis Paul Boon, Hugo Claus, Amélie Nothomb, Thomas Gunzig and Fikry El Azzouzi. Based on comparative translation analyses, the study reveals epistemic configurations and their corresponding expectations in the German target context. These are mapped via hetero- and auto-images and brought together to form trends in translation dynamics giving an overall view of social discourses underlying the recontextualisation of Belgian literatures in Germany. The culture-constructing function of translation depending on socio-historical discourses is highlighted in this way. Moreover, the study provides a conceptual basis for further research into the reception of Belgian literatures.
Contact: anja.vandepol@vub.be
