This dissertation deals with the Canadian category publisher Harlequin Enterprises.Operating in a hundred markets and publishing in twenty-four languages around the world,Harlequin Enterprises exemplifies the increasingly transnational character of publishing and the media. This book takes the Stockholm-based Scandinavian subsidiary Förlaget Harlequin as a case-study to analyze the complexities involved in the transposition of Harlequin romances from one cultural context into another. Using a combination of theoretical and empirical approaches it is argued that the local process of translation and editing - here referred to as transediting - has a fundamental impact on how the global book becomes local.
The study is divided into six chapters, with an Introduction and Conclusion. The Introduction outlines the theoretical and methodological background. The first chapter uses Pierre Bourdieu's concept of field to examine the North American romance phenomenon, and is followed by a chapter entirely dedicated to Harlequin Enterprises in Toronto. Chapter Three turns to Sweden and the category book before Harlequin's arrival on the Scandinavian book market in 1979. Chapter Four draws on six "participatory observations" made at the weekly editorial meetings at the Stockholm office to discuss the work of the editors. Chapter Five analyzes the practice of transediting, exploring local choices and deliberations made by editors and translators in Sweden. Chapter Six is entirely devoted to a reading of fifty-six Harlequin romances published in Sweden between 1980-1992. Finally, the Conclusion attempts to draw together and develop the implications of some of the more important points argued in previous chapters.
Here's the abstract: