Translating a meisjesboek

This chapter explores differences in translation and production norms between source and target publishers of children's and young adult literature, as well as the influence of state agents such as the Dutch Foundation for Literature (DFL) on these norms. By analysing the factors behind the selection of Guus Kuijer's Polleke series (2003) for Afrikaans translation by Protea Boekhuis , it highlights the rarely studied Dutch–Afrikaans language pair and contributes to research on how the international literary policies of the DFL and Flanders Literature (FL) shape foreign publishers’ editorial practices. Interviews with the Afrikaans translator and editor of Polleke (2017) were analysed using Toury's (2012) norm theory to determine the publisher's norms, as well as the extent to which they differed from those of other publishers of Afrikaans children's literature. Results indicate that source-text themes did not influence the text's selection. Rather, the selection decision was based on the perceived literary status of the source text and its author, and available funding. Interestingly, despite the differing frames of reference between source- and target-text readers, the source publisher contractually prohibited any deviations from the source text. This highlights how legal agreements can impose strict constraints on translators and translation publishers.