Does peripherality sell? Some comments on the editorial peritexts of Polish novels translated into French

Abstract

The position of Polish literature in France is strictly marginal and is thus an excellent example of the relationship between the centre of the European book market and its periphery, regulated by dominant languages and characterised by an imbalance in the exchange of cultural goods. Such a situation makes it possible for French publishers to use the peripherality category as a marketing tool in order to draw the attention of potential readers to books from a distant and unfamiliar region. The article attempts to examine whether and how publishers highlight the peripheral nature of Polish literature in the paratexts of published translations. The research corpus consists of books published between 2008 and 2018 by four publishers: Noir sur Blanc, Actes Sud, Mirobole, and Agullo, who are among the most active entities importing Polish literature to France in the studied period.