Images of the North: An imagological analysis of Nordic noir book covers in Greece and Spain

Although Scandinavia is arguably peripheral in the global literary system, it nevertheless holds a surprisingly prominent position in the field of translation, Swedish and Danish being among the ten most translated languages in the world (Lindqvist, 2015). What literature is selected for translation and introduction into new linguistic contexts is not a coincidence, but has to do with economic factors that may be based on cultural expectations on the Other. According to imagologist Leerssen (2007), stereotypical images of the Other are often transmitted by means of fictional literature and need to be questioned. In our presentation, we will expose an analysis of the book cover images of a selection of Nordic noir literature, mainly Swedish, published in Greece and Spain in the period of 2000-2017. According to Genette, the covers are crucial to the paratextual signal system. We aim to compare the original book covers to the covers of the translated volumes. Our hypothesis is that the Greek and Spanish book markets reproduce and emphasize the stereotypical images of the North that have been identified in studies on borealism. We will also make a comparison between the two countries of reception. Both countries belong to the Southern European region, with cultural, political and historical similarities, but at the same time also have linguistic and cultural differences. We will investigate how the images of the covers of the translated books differ from one country of reception to the other.