Australian Literature in Serbian Translation

Abstract

The paper traces the history of reception of Australian literature in Serbo-Croatian speaking republics of Yugoslavia until 1991 and then its reception in Serbian translation from 1991 until today. The sixty-year period of reception, from the first recorded translation in 1954 to 2012, is divided into 12 five-year periods and the pattern of reception is established and analysed. Concentrating on three distinct spikes of interest and one considerable dip, which can be clearly distinguished in the pattern, the paper seeks to address the following questions: which Australian authors have been translated most frequently or what might have spurred the interest in certain authors and works in particular periods and whether there has been a consistent systematic interest in Australian literature or its presence in Serbian translation is largely the result of sporadic individual efforts. The pattern also reveals that the reception of prose fiction dominates over poetry and the paper, therefore, pays particular attention to four anthologies of Australian fiction which have been published in Yugoslavia/Serbia.