Explores semi-peripheral literary cultures and their relations to the cosmopolitan and the vernacular, using the Swedish context as a case study.

This open access book uses Swedish literature and the Swedish publishing field as recurring examples todescribe and analyse the role of the literary semi-peripheral position in world literature from various perspectives and on meso, micro and macro levels, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. This includes the role of translation in the semi-periphery and the conditions under which literature travels to and from that position. The focus is not on Sweden, as such, but rather on the semi-peripheral transitional space as exemplified by the Swedish case. Consisting of three co-written chapters, this study sheds light on what might be called the semi-peripheral condition or the semi-periphery as an area of transition. As part of the Cosmopolitan and Vernacular Dynamics in World Literatures series, it makes continuous use of the concepts of 'cosmopolitan' and 'vernacular' – or rather, the processual terms, cosmopolitanization and vernacularization – which provide an overall structure to the analysis of literature and literary phenomena. In this way, the authors show that the semi-periphery is an ideal point of departure to further the understanding of world literature, because it is a place where the cosmopolitan (the literary universal) and the vernacular (the rootedness in a particular culture or place) interact in ways that have not yet been thoroughly explored. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

"Go global or extend the local? This volume digs into the most fundamental questions about the construction of literary place, presenting an elaborate and multifaceted case study from the semi-periphery. It convincingly shows how translation-flows concern far more than numbers: they show a culture at work." - Anthony Pym, Distinguished Professor of Translation and Intercultural Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia

"By framing Sweden as a "semi-peripheral" space of world literary networks, Northern Crossings opens up new cross-ways of scrutinizing translation-flows, creation of readerships and recognition of literary works through the Nobel Prize in the public sphere. An interesting co-authored work which underscores benefits of collaborative work in World Literature Studies." - B. Venkat Mani, Professor of German and World Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, author of Recoding World Literature (2017), and co-editor, A Companion to World Literature (2020)