Translated Children's Fiction in New Zealand

Abstract

In 2005, new publisher Gecko Press entered the New Zealand market specialising in English translations of children’s books. The notion of ‘homegrown translations’ was a new departure for a post-colonial book market dominated for several decades by literary nationalism. Through a combination of diachronic and synchronic perspectives, as well as case studies of individual books, this thesis aims to illuminate the history and context of translated children’s books in New Zealand in order to account for the peculiarities of marketing and reception associated with the locally published translations of recent years.

The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first examines the history of children’s literary translation in the target culture. Drawing on wide-ranging quantitative data, including a newly compiled database of translations in the National Children’s Collection, it grapples with the ‘invisibility’ of translations in archival sources and offers a detailed analysis of the importation and – much more rarely – production of translated children’s books in New Zealand over several decades. Particular attention is paid to the relative importance of different source languages. In this way, a striking correspondence is revealed between historically dominant source languages and those now most strongly represented in the list of Gecko Press.

Part two is concerned with the conditions of the New Zealand children’s book market, including cultural policies and national branding schemes, which influence the selection, production and reception of translations. Paratextual analysis and expert interviews are used to determine the social function that Gecko Press claims to fill with its translated books. The close relationship between the education system and children’s literature production, another characteristic feature of the small New Zealand market, is also considered. Finally, several gaps (Toury 1995) in the target market are discussed: the relative lack of ‘sophisticated’ picture books, standards of book design and production values, and the small number of professionally published comics.

The third part presents case studies of selected Gecko Press translations, concentrating on books that have proved controversial or successful. Each case study examines both the intrinsic features of a given book and its reception, asking which gaps in the target market it fills, which new approaches, themes or subgenre it introduces, and which familiar elements help it to ‘connect’ to the target culture. The dynamic between book and socio-cultural context is used to account for examples of success and controversy. In combination, the three parts of this thesis provide the first ever broad-based account of the changing and multifaceted role of translated children’s books in New Zealand, in the process bringing specific characteristics of the local children’s book market into sharp relief.