A Strategy of Cultural Americanization
Keywords:
cultural adaptation, translation studies, youth literature, Americanization, Swedish literature, cultural relocationAbstract
This article analyzes the cultural adaptation strategies employed by an American publisher when translating and relocating a contemporary Swedish youth novel, Are u 4 Real? by Sara Kadefors. The study examines how the novel's setting was shifted from Sweden to California, and how certain elements, such as explicit sexual content, were toned down to better suit the target audience. The paper explores the theoretical frameworks of translation and adaptation, highlighting the differences in attitude towards these processes across genres. The author contends that cultural relocation, a term borrowed from theatre studies, is used to make the text more relatable to the target audience while also serving broader cultural and commercial interests. This work investigates the implications of such adaptations on the original text's integrity and reception among young adult readers.(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)
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