Connecting Multiple Mediatorships and Literary Awards

In this chapter, we investigate the consecrating role of Flanders Literature and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), especially regarding their impact on the transnational circulation of the work of Belgian writer and ALMA winner Bart Moeyaert. We pay special attention to the Swedish translations of his work, positing that translation into Swedish was pivotal. We put specific focus on forms of ‘multiple mediatorship’ established by interconnected networks of cultural mediators. These are constructed around and between actors and institutions of power, with each of these playing their specific role in the chain of events leading to the circulation, translation, and consecration of a specific authorship. The most crucial mediating mechanisms that we identify are the author's self-mediation, German as a transit language, and the Swedish publisher's own transnational networks. The results, furthermore, show that the ALMA had a clear impact on the translation and consecration of Moeyaert in Sweden, but this only holds to some extent for the further transnational circulation of his authorship. In particular, we can see an effect of the ALMA on the circulation of Moeyaert in some areas of the literary periphery, but here financial support from Flanders Literature proves to be essential.