“Translation is the Language of the Future”¹ 

What does diversity mean in the broad field of literary exchange, particularly in relation to translation subsidies?

Not long ago, a study of the Austrian translation market came to the conclusion that Austria was “not a country of translations”² . In 2009, Rüdiger Wischenbart observed that Austrian publishers released significantly fewer foreign titles than German publishers, but he discovered noteworthy differences with respect to the languages of origin. Naturally, English titles dominate here as well, but there is a higher proportion of French, Italian, Slovenian and other Eastern and South Eastern European languages. This seems to indicate that cultural diversity is valued more highly here than on the European average.³

However, does and should this suffice?

The comparatively high status of Slovenian literature in Austria is due to three Slovenian publishing companies in Klagenfurt and does not, unfortunately, result from general, Austria-wide interest.
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, and especially since the accession of Poland, the Baltic States, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia to the EU in 2004, more attention has been paid to Eastern European literature, and several Austrian publishers have begun to take an interest in these previously unknown literary landscapes.

Interest alone, however, would not have made such a development possible. Without (translation) subsidies, hardly any publishers in Austria today can afford to publish unknown authors from Kiev, Tirana, or even not-so-distant Zagreb. From this we can definitely deduce a mission for future work – not only at KulturKontakt Austria.

Literary diversity lives, above all, from and with literary translators, whose training and professional status are still insufficient.
Their work – which they understand as “conditio humana” (Alida Bremer), “posthorses of enlightenment” (Alexander Belobratov) and “translation as a way of life” (Fedia Filkova)  – offers insights into the diversity of literary creation and perceptual journeys into other realities. 

Since 1990, more than 1,000 translations in 22 languages have been sponsored by KulturKontakt Austria. Since 2006, KKA has concentrated on supporting Eastern and South Eastern European literature and translations of these works into German.
www.kulturkontakt.or.at/kulturfoerderung

¹Hugo Loetscher: War meine Zeit meine Zeit. Diogenes 2009
²Pölzer, Rudolf: Kein Land des Übersetzens. Studie zum österreichischen Übersetzungsmarkt 2000-2004. In: Repräsentation – Transformation, Vienna: Lit Verlag 2007
³Wischenbart, Rüdiger; Jursitzky, Jennifer: Übersetzungen in Verlagen in Wien und Österreich. 2009, download at www.wischenbart.com/diversity