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I was about to suggest this may also vary by subject, but using philosophy as a case study it seems to at least somewhat hold water. I’ll use philosophy only be

by CSSer 6y ago

I was about to suggest this may also vary by subject, but using philosophy as a case study it seems to at least somewhat hold water. I’ll use philosophy only because I minored in undergrad, so I’m not an expert but I’m also a bit more well versed than a laymen. Anyway, I’ve extensively read Spinoza (Portuguese), Sartre/Beauvoir & Camus (French), Kant (German), Aquinas & Boethius (Italian). I’d expect most others with philosophy backgrounds to at the very least know these names and a synopsis about them too. All that being said, I’m hard pressed to name a Hungarian or Finnish philosopher. I wonder why these languages are less prominent internationally in literature.

marton78 6y ago
I think you're conflating "internationally" with "in the US". Hungarian (Márai, Kertész, Esterházy), Czech (Kundera, Hrabal, Hašek), Polish (Sienkiewicz, Lem) novels, for example, enjoy quite some popularity in German translation.
- Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  Kertész is even an example of an author more popular in translation – namely those German editions – than in his own country. When he won the Nobel Prize, the response even among many Hungarian intellectuals was “Who?”, followed in some cases by anti-Semitic remarks, which just goes to show how little a prophet (for nearly all Kertész’s works grapple with the Holocaust and its impact on Hungarian Jewry) is honored in his own homeland.
- dhosek 6y ago
  Possibly. I think some of that is a lingering cultural hangover of the Austro-Hungarian empire (which is also reflected in the cuisine of the nations that formerly composed said empire). My first reading of a Hungarian author in translation was when I was in grad school studying under Tibor Fischer. Despite it being my heritage, I only read Czech authors for the first time when I was working on a novel set in 1900 Prague. On the flip side, I'm fluent enough in Spanish now that I only read translations of authors writing in Spanish unintentionally (I hadn't realized that Optic Nerve was a translation when I read it) in favor of reading them in the original.

by CSSer 6y ago

marton78 6y ago

I think you're conflating "internationally" with "in the US". Hungarian (Márai, Kertész, Esterházy), Czech (Kundera, Hrabal, Hašek), Polish (Sienkiewicz, Lem) novels, for example, enjoy quite some popularity in German translation.

Mediterraneo10 6y ago
Kertész is even an example of an author more popular in translation – namely those German editions – than in his own country. When he won the Nobel Prize, the response even among many Hungarian intellectuals was “Who?”, followed in some cases by anti-Semitic remarks, which just goes to show how little a prophet (for nearly all Kertész’s works grapple with the Holocaust and its impact on Hungarian Jewry) is honored in his own homeland.
dhosek 6y ago
Possibly. I think some of that is a lingering cultural hangover of the Austro-Hungarian empire (which is also reflected in the cuisine of the nations that formerly composed said empire). My first reading of a Hungarian author in translation was when I was in grad school studying under Tibor Fischer. Despite it being my heritage, I only read Czech authors for the first time when I was working on a novel set in 1900 Prague. On the flip side, I'm fluent enough in Spanish now that I only read translations of authors writing in Spanish unintentionally (I hadn't realized that Optic Nerve was a translation when I read it) in favor of reading them in the original.