Facts and Figures
Here you will find some basic visualizations which depict the various aspects of the translation flows from Dutch into Serbian. The visualisations are based on the data available in the Digital Library and Bibliography for Literature in Translation and Adaptation (DLBT).
Dutch Literature in Serbia (2000-)
This line chart shows the number of publications of Dutch books in Serbia per year from 2000 onwards, both original and reprint. The data include all four major genres.
The most translated authors in Serbia
This pie chart displays data on the most translated Dutch and Flemish authors in Serbia. Books, short stories, poetry, and fragments published in literary journals and anthologies are included in the dataset. It also includes each of the four primary genres. Click here to learn more about Serbian translations of Hugo Claus and how he became one of the most widely translated authors from Dutch in Serbia.
The most successful titles in Serbia
This graph displays the most successful titles published in Serbia. It is uncommon for a title by a Dutch or Flemish author to be reprinted, and even more rare for it to be retranslated. So far, the most reprinted title in Serbia, apart from Anna Frank’s Diary, is the internationally successful memoire of the art dealer Stan Lauryssens Dali & I, which was translated into Serbian for the first time in 2007 and since then reprinted four times.
It is worth mentioning that the translation of Marike Lucas Rijneveld’s novel The Discomfort of Evening, which took the world by storm after winning the International Booker Prize in 2020, nearly sold out of all 1500 copies when it was published in 2020, prompting the publication of a second edition in 2021. Click here if you want to learn more about this publication.
The most important publishers in Serbia
This graph displays information on the most productive publishers of Dutch literature in Serbia. It is important to point out that the dataset includes books, short stories, poems, and fragments published in literary magazines and anthologies. For that reason, the two most productive publishers are Arius and Luterazmo/Partenon, who both publish the literary magazine dedicated to Dutch and Flemish literature, Erazmo. This magazine, founded in 2002 by the two most productive Dutch-to-Serbian translators, Jelica Novaković-Lopušina and Ivana Šćepanović, has published 13 issues since then.
The publisher that has put out the most translations in book form is Prometej. The majority of its publications, on the other hand, date from the 1990s and early 2000s. From 2000 onwards, the distribution of Dutch literature publications has been more or less equal among publishers. Go here if you want to find out more about Prometej and how they became the most prolific publisher of Dutch literature in Serbia in the 1990s.
The most important translators in Serbia
This bar chart displays information on the most prolific Dutch to Serbian translators. As we can see on the graph, Ivana Šćepanović and Jelica Novaković-Lopušina are two translators that stand out. Thanks to their enthusiasm, book lovers in Serbia are able to read some of the most beautiful novels and poetry written by well-known classic and contemporary writers from the Netherlands and Flanders, including Hugo Claus, Willem Elsschot, Cees Nooteboom, Herman Koch and Dimitri Verhulst, among many others. Click here if you want to learn more about their work.