FROM NORTHERN EXOTISM TO CONDEMNATION TO HEAVEN: CULTURAL TRANSLATION AND LITERARY REPRESENTATION OF THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES IN THE LOCAL SERBIAN CONTEXT

The largely positive hetero-image of the Scandinavian region reverberates both world-wide and in the local Serbian context. Therefore, the main subject of this paper is how media-bound literary representations of Scandinavia travel from the original Scandinavian to the local Serbian cultural context, i.e. what kind of image of Scandinavia is conveyed and received through the recent translations of Scandinavian literary texts into Serbian. For that reason, the paper introduces the notions of Northern Exotism and Condemnation to Heaven as two dominant ways the Scandinavian region is presented in * ruzica.radulovic011@yahoo.com ** The paper is partially based on the author‟s master thesis From Northern Exotism to Condemnation to Heaven: Cultural Relations and Cultural Translation between the Scandinavian and post-Yugoslav countries (UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management, University of Arts in Belgrade, 2018)


INTRODUCTION
Contemporary Scandinavian societies are known for their multiculturalism and values that position them as a unique exceptional region (Jensen & Loftsdóttir, 2014;Jensen & Loftsdóttir, 2016;Hübinette, 2016)democracy, tolerance, societal inclusion, equality and egality, political consensus, collectivism. Furthermore, these countries are considered to be "the world"s champion(s) of minority rights and mediators in global politics" (Fur as cited in Jensen & Loftsdóttir, 2014, p. 8), while "the best of all worlds are located in the North" (Henningsen as cited in Jensen & Loftsdóttir, 2016, p. 6). The general conception of the modern Scandinavian countries is therefore associated with the high living standard and the values of the welfare state model, making the international image of the Scandinavian region value-neutral and/or value-positive (Rajić, 2008a).
This largely positive hetero-image of the Scandinavian region reverberates internationally, i.e. both worldwide and in the local Serbian context. Therefore, the main subject of this paper is how media-bound literary representations of Scandinavia travel from the original Scandinavian to the local Serbian cultural context, i.e. what kind of image of Scandinavia is conveyed through the recent translations of Scandinavian literary texts into Serbian. For that reason, the paper introduces the notions of Northern Exotism and Condemnation to Heaven as two dominant ways the Scandinavian region is presented in fictional texts. The paper understands the notion of Scandinavia as a narrow political and historical entity, comprised of the following three states: Denmark, Sweden and Norway (Rajić, 2008b).
The literary corpus that was chosen for thematic analysis was extracted from the overall body of modern Scandinavian literature in Serbian translation

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based on the data collected by Professor Ljubiša Rajić in his bibliography Skandinavska knjiga u prevodu na srpskohrvatski jezik (2008) and complemented with data provided by COBISS -Co-operative Online Bibliographic System and Services, Danish Arts Foundation, NORLA and Swedish Arts Council"s databases (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018). The scope of the research included only those cultural texts that have a certain role in the cultural circulation and relations between the Scandinavian region and Serbia, as we are interested in the travel of media-bound representations, values, patterns of thinking and modes of behaviour from one cultural context to another. The research did not include the translations of diplomas, treaties, law suits, catalogues, etc. Moreover, Professor Rajić"s bibliography included translations that were not done from the original language (i.e. Danish, Norwegian, Swedish), but from an intermediary language of translation (German or English). Our research included only the translations done directly from the original languages. Non-fiction was also taken into consideration, as well as the translations done by non-professional translators, i.e. those who did not acquire formal education at the Department of Scandinavian Studies in Belgrade. As COBISS detects only those units published as independent editions, books or brochures, this represented the main source of research limitation.
In order to evaluate the reception of Scandinavian literature by the Serbian reading audience, we interviewed the executive directors of the following publishing houses in Serbia: Geopeotika (Jasna Novakov Sibinović), Laguna (Mina Kebin) and Odiseja (Marija Vukosavljević and Vesna Kapuran). These publishers were selected because the publication of Scandinavian authors is part of their publishing policy. There are, of course, other publishers that have published Scandinavian authors over the course of time, but an analysis of their editions shows that their publishing policy regarding Scandinavian literature is not consistent and that Scandinavian writers can be found only as occasional "sparks" in their publishing programme. Another criterion for the selection of publishers was the consistency of publishing a certain author, as this can provide better visibility and promotion of the literature in question. Additionally, in regard to the reception of Scandinavian literature, we interviewed journalists Dragana Kovaĉević and Milica Lapĉević. The research questions were predominantly aimed at: the dominant narratives in translations that convey a certain message about the Scandinavian societies and their values; the Scandinavian authors who have contributed most to the creation of a particular image of Scandinavia and those who are most easily recognized by the Serbian reading audience; an approximate evaluation of visibility of Scandinavian literature and authors to the wider public.
Based on the theoretical framework of cultural translation, the paper explains the level of cultural untranslatability and adaption between the Scandinavian and Serbian R U Ž I C A S. R A D U L O V I Ć languages. For this purpose, we interviewed three different professional translators from the Scandinavian languages, more precisely Norwegian and Danish -Jelena Loma, Sofija Vuković Petrik and Radoš Kosović. The research questions included: the extent of (cultural) untranslatability in the texts (i.e. what is difficult to translate from one language to another and keep the same affective or emotional content the utterance has in the original culture); an approximate evaluation of the extent to which the text is being adapted to the culture of the target language during the translation act.
The authors that we considered to be the representatives of the aforementioned overarching narratives (Northern Exotism and Condemnation to Heaven) are also those who contributed to the general breakthrough of the Scandinavian literature on the Serbian book market and who are greatly praised by the Serbian publishers for their artistic quality and credibility. These authors have also received the highest Scandinavian literary awards (e.g. Augustpriset, Amalie Skram-prisen, The Nordic Council Literary Prize, Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, etc.), so they represent the peak of the contemporary Scandinavian literature. Therefore, the chosen authors are also a part of the publishing programmes of the selected publishing houses. These are Erlend Loe, Per Petterson, Merethe Lindstrøm and Jo Nesbø and in particular the following novels: Dopler (Doppler, Erlend Loe, 2003)

CULTURAL TRANSLATION IN THE POSTCOLONIAL PERSPECTIVE OF HOMI BHABHA
Cultural translation is a cultural and political phenomenon dealing with some of the crucial challenges of the fragmented societies, cultures and identities in the world of globalization and migratory processes (Rogaĉ-Mijatović, 2015). The significance of cultural translation lies within the fact that it perceives translation as a cultural process rather than a textual product. It is traditionally linked to the demographic processes that shape our cultures, which is particularly the case with the multicultural Scandinavian societies.
The concept of cultural translation as we understand it today has not originated from the traditional translation theories, but from their radical critique. The first to criticize the traditional translation theories was Walter Benjamin in his 1923 essay "The Task of the Translator" (2012). For Benjamin, translation has neither to do with the T

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transfer of meaning nor with communication. In his essay "On language as such and on the language of man" (1916), Benjamin concludes that: "Translation passes through continua of transformation, not abstract ideas of identity and similarity" (cited in Bhabha, 1994, p. 212). That translation goes through continua of transformation implies a relation between the original (cultural) text and the translation. Benjamin believes that these two entities are not some fixed or permanent categories, as they are transforming themselves in time and space. Moreover, he describes the relation between the original and translation as a tangent line, i.e. the translation is a tangent that touches the circle (the original) only in one point, whereafter it continues going its way (Buden et al, 2009).
Out of this deconstructivist theory, Homi Bhabha coined his notion of cultural translation (Bhabha, 1994, p. 212). While Walter Benjamin was concerned with the critique of the traditional translation theory, Bhabha was motivated by the critique of the ideology of multiculturalism. What is at stake here is the essentialist quality of the unitary cultural identities and communities, imagined by multiculturalism. Deconstructivism undermines the concept of multiculturalism by negating that every identity comes from some previously given state, i.e. essence. For a deconstructivist such as Bhabha, culture is a narrative, without any specific historical or physical origin, i.e. a sign system (Bhabha, 1994, p. 198). This is how deconstructivism undermines the essentialist quality of multiculturalism, as it postulates that there is no "natural state" of things. Thus cultures cannot relate to, they can only construct their own origin, but beyond the mentioned essentialist qualities such as race, gender or ethnicity. Therefore, cultural translation is not concerned with a linguistic transfer of units, but with transfer, transformation and translation of a historical subject from one political and cultural state into another. The historical subject acts as a cultural translator. The task of the translator is then both cultural and political. However, the only element that is directly taken from the traditional translation theory is the issue of untranslatability. Bhabha sees untranslatability, as expected, not as a linguistic problem, but rather as a point of resistance and will for survival of the migrant. The way resistance and survival are connected to each other in cultural translation corresponds to the way Walter Benjamin claims that translation prolongs the life of the original. Prolonged life is possible as the very act of translation simultaneously transforms and inevitably renews the original (Benjamin as cited in Pym, 2014, p. 141).
Bhabha mobilizes a whole segment of translation theory and redefines itfrom a plain linguistic transformation into a struggle for new cultural identities. Cultural translation thus introduces a human dimension, as it advocates for a transformation of R U Ž I C A S. R A D U L O V I Ć the world not through negation, but through negotiation (Buden et al, 2009, p. 201). That is why Bhabha suggests the third space, which is a space for cultural hybridity (Bhabha, 1994, p. 223). The (cultural) translator is then located at or even within the borders of the different cultures, as s/he possesses the cultural competences of both environments: "The focus is on making the linkages through the unstable elements of literature and lifethe dangerous tryst with the untranslatablerather than arriving at ready-made names" (Bhabha, 1994, p. 325). This attitude is generalized in the following quote: "Translation is the performative nature of cultural communication" (Bhabha as cited in Pym, 2014, p. 141).
Obviously, such an understanding of translation must come from the position of translator, and not from the position of translation. Moreover, the translator is figurative (Pym, 2014), while the focus on hybridity is telling us something more about the general position of the translator. The cultural translator is located in the in-between spaces of cultures (Bhabha, 1994;Rogaĉ-Mijatović, 2015). By possessing cultural competences from both environments, s/he can say something about the effects that the translation has on the cultures, thus opening them to the other cultures.

INTERVENTIONS IN TRANSLATION?
Kwame Anthony Appiah and Antoine Berman are two theoreticians who are even more interested in the number of necessary interventions made by the translator when a text travels from one culture to another. Claiming that a "perfect" translation does not exist, Appiah argues that intervention and adaption by the translator are inevitable, as the transformed text has to find its own place in the culture it is being translated into (Appiah, 2012). The purpose of translation for Appiah is not primarily the meaning, but getting the meaning: When a speaker communicates a belief by way of the utterance of the sentence, she does so by getting her hearers to recognize both that this is the belief she intends them to have and that she intends them to have that belief in part, because they recognize that primary intention. (Appiah, 2012, p. 333) It is worth noting that in the literary practice, motivated by a specific structure of mutual expectations between the sender and receiver, it is not only important to get the

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literal intention of the text, or the intention of the author, but to comprehend the whole overarching message, that is also conveyed by the formal features of the text such as alliteration, meter, rhyme, etc. (Appiah, 2012, p. 334). In poetry, we cannot rely on the literal meanings of the words and utterances, as they frequently do not have fixed meaningswe rely on the associations the words evoke by their sound or thought (Appiah, 2012, p. 334).
The aim of the translator is then to construct something that would share the central literary features of the target textit must somehow relate to the culture it is being translated into (Appiah, 2012, p. 338). This is where Appiah gets close to cultural translation. He introduces a special concept of literary translation that he calls thick translation, which should localize the text in the rich linguistic and cultural context of the target language: "learning about rich differences of human life in culture is the aim of not only the literary, but also cultural translation" (Appiah, 2012, p. 341). By the "thick translation", the author refers to the "thick description" of the context of literary productionthe system of annotations and accompanying glosses in translationthat provides us with the necessary apparatus for understanding the characteristics of other cultures or other times (Appiah, 2012, pp. 341-342).
Antoine Berman addresses the issues of the act of translation, the necessary amounts of adaption and intervention made by the translator. In addition to this, Berman develops a system of analysis that tracks the degree of text deformation and adaption during the translation act. He argues that this is the inevitable nature of the translating act, and particularly of literary translations, as they are strongly rooted in the language of their original culture, so that the manipulation of signifiers is unavoidable (Berman, 2012). The analytic of translation includes two possible meaningsa detailed analysis of the deformation system and an analysis in the psychoanalytical sense (Berman, 2012, p. 241). The analysis in the psychoanalytical sense is an unconscious system, as it exists only as series of tendencies or even "forces" that make the translation transform its own aim (Berman, 2012, p. 242). Berman identifies twelve deformation tendencies or ways of transformation: rationalization, clarification, expansion, ennoblement and popularization, qualitative impoverishment, quantitative impoverishment, the destruction of rhythms, the destruction of underlying networks of signification, the destruction of linguistic patternings, the destruction of vernacular networks or their exoticization, the destruction of expressions and idioms, the effacement of the superimposition of languages (Berman, 2012, p. 244). Moreover, Berman claims that prose texts collect, rearrange and mix the "polylingual" space of a community (Berman, 2012, p. 243). The polylingual space implies the totality of languages that are mobilized and activated and that co-exist in any given language (Berman, 2012, p. 243).

THE STRUCTURE OF TRANSLATIONS OF MODERN SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE INTO SERBIAN (1988-2018)
The biggest share of translations of modern Scandinavian literature into Serbian comprises prose texts, in the first place adult fiction, crime novels and then children"s fiction. There is also a considerable amount of translated short stories. Still, the novel is the dominant and most prevailing literary form. Drama is considerably less translated, and there are hardly any systematic translations of Scandinavian dramatists. 1 Plays are mostly commissioned by theatres as they are intended to be performed later. Poetry is the least translated, together with non-fiction. Collections of bigger, capital works of Scandinavian literature are rare cases. There is one recent case of a translated anthology of Swedish poetry. 2 So far, there are no anthologies of Danish literature.
Scandinavian literature in translation is represented mostly, as it appears, by the contemporary literary production, except for a few older classics, such as Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg and Knut Hamsun. The prevalence of translations of contemporary Scandinavian literature is easily explained by the interest of the responsible institutions -NORLA, Swedish Arts Council, and Danish Arts Foundationto promote their contemporary societies (Šobe & Marten, 2014). We can also add that this suits the political and foreign trade interest of a country (Vizomirski & Šnajder, 2006). Judging by the number of extracted units, the very core of Scandinavian literature in Serbian translation is composed of the following authors:

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Although Jo Nesbø is the most represented Scandinavian author in Serbian translation according to the current corpus of translations, the first translation of his works appeared only after 2008. He was therefore not included in professor Rajić"s bibliography, but the number of titles translated in the period of ten years bear witness to his success on the book market.
Astrid Lindgren has the same number of units. Up to 2008, twelve titles were translated. In the past ten years, the Belgrade-based publisher These authors are followed by Erlend Loe, with ten identified titles. However, the extent of his success is made even clearer when we take into consideration the amount of reprints and new editions of some of his titles. Together with new editions of previously published works, the total count of units is around thirty. The situation is similar with Jostein Gaarder. Together with newer editions the total count of units would be seventy.
There are certain changes in regard to the structure of translations at the time Professor Rajić"s bibliography was published. Until 2008, according to Professor Rajić, most of the translated authors were Swedes (more than 120), followed by Norwegians (110) and Danes (60). In the next period, from 2008 to 2018, new authors were introduced, so that the total count of the Scandinavian authors represented through translation starting from 1988 up to 2018 is: more than 110 Norwegian authors are represented through translation; the number of Swedish authors counts approximately 85; while Danes are the least translated with 55 authors. These figures also include nonfiction.
Children"s literature, although represented by a solid share of authors, has its lacunas. The target audience are usually children between the age of six and twelve and younger teenagers. There is no literature for preschoolers, as books for this age group are usually illustrated and picture books, which are more expensive for publishers (M.

THE RECEPTION OF SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE
When asked about the dominant narratives in the imported Scandinavian literature, both the executive directors of the publishing houses and the journalists reached a certain consensus that the main narrative revolved around "a man on the other side of a mental breakdown". The family and inner darkness act as the focushow the main character is dealing with pain, divorce, death, mortality, betrayal, aging, while preserving the facade of a normal, bourgeois family. This poses a question about one"s identity, particularly about one"s perception of one"s own age and gender identity. Our reading audience perceives this as something "exotic", as identity crisis is experienced in different ways in the Balkans, as explained by Jasna Novakov Sibinović (personal communication, May 24, 2018). By this, the interlocutor referred to the cases of local crimes in Serbia that represent an escalation of the culture of violence, "bottled up" feelings that explode with tragic consequences.

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127 defined by certain standards and specifications of the genre, the crime novel authors, including Nesbø, often manage to overcome the constrictions of the genre, so that we cannot speak of a simple crime novel, but of a complex meta-text with intertextual elements. However, how the audience shall understand these meta-elements depends on the personal depth of reading. For instance, Jo Nesbø"s references to the hidden sympathy for and legacy of Nazism in Sweden during the Second World War, as Kebin believes, are not a part of the "real history" for a Serbian reader, but s/he reads and processes them as something fictional ( Judging by the answers provided by the interlocutors, the general reception of Scandinavian literature is related to the inclination of the Serbian reading audience to the narratives that are represented in the translations. As explained by the interviewed publishers and journalists, a significant number of Scandinavian authors translated into Serbian depict mechanisms individuals use to cope with seemingly unsolvable life problems. Furthermore, the feature of Scandinavian literature that seems to be appealing to the Serbian audience is the depiction of the reverse side of the Scandinavian societies, which feels much closer to the local Serbian context and existential problems experienced in the Balkans (pain, divorce, death, mortality, aging, social and financial uncertainty, etc.). One of the frequently depicted themes in these translations are the feuds between the neighbouring countries, for example, between Norwegians and Swedes. The publishers believe that this also contributes to the general popularity of Scandinavian literature.
Moreover, based on Geopoetika"s and Laguna"s publishing experience, "exotic literature" such as Scandinavian is better received than "the grand French literature". For instance, even some of Geopoetika"s French titles that have been awarded the Goncourt prize are not as noticed as Scandinavian authors. Generally, as agreed among the interviewed publishers and literary journalists in Serbia, the common features of the Scandinavian authors represented on the Serbian book market are: high quality of writing style and narrative talent, and depiction of inner struggles and psychological make-up and motivation of characters.

CULTURAL UNTRANSLATABILITY AND THE LEVEL OF ADAPTION IN SERBIAN TRANSLATION OF SCANDINAVIAN CULTURES
The following translation problems were identified: language identity and its roles in Norway, Tu-Vous (T-V) distinction, local cultural references and the Scandinavian religious heritage. These elements of culture are difficult to translate as they do not have their adequate equivalents in Serbian.
Language identity in Norwegian originates from the existence of many and various Norwegian dialects that have implications for our understanding of the values that are assigned to the users of a particular dialect. What cannot be translated in this context is how to explain the significance of dialects in Norway. This is a consequence of the complex development of Norwegian language politics that took place in the 19 th century, producing two standardised forms of Norwegian -bokmål and nynorsk. Jelena Loma explained the role of language identity in Norwegian by referring to her experience of translating Per Petterson. He insists on using a-endings in the preterite (aendinger), for instancesykla, børsta. If this were replaced in Serbian with the forms of the perfect tense ending in "ô" (išô, probô), it would have a completely different connotation. On the level of sociolect, these problems can be solved lexically, not necessarily grammatically. However, the dialects and their significance can neither be explained nor transferred (J. Loma, personal communication, July 7, 2018).
T-V distinction is challenging for translation as it is not as strongly rooted in the Scandinavian languages as it is in Serbian. The translator"s task is to recognize intuitively when the distinction should be introduced in the text and when it can be avoided. The Scandinavians rarely use T-V distinction to mark the differences in hierarchy in the working environment, age differences or politeness. The reason T-V distinction has such implications on translation is that there are certain phenomena in culture which, in order to be well understood and translated, require a close and thorough knowledge of the culture. For instance, familiarity can be translated. Some distinctions in Serbian, e.g. the hierarchical relations between the employer and employees, should be preserved by introducing the Serbian forms "Vi" and "ti", regardless of the original text (S. Vuković Petrik, personal communication, July 4, 2018).
Cultural references that are specific to a particular culture represent another difficultyfor instance, the translation of bankebrett (kucaljka) in Naivan. Super (Naiv.

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Super) by Erlend Loe (2003) (S. Vuković Petrik, personal communication, July 4, 2018). They usually need to be additionally explained, adapted or even removed from the text. Fiction, on the other hand, does not allow many interventions, as the tone and atmosphere of the literary work need to be preserved. In such cases, the easiest solution is to introduce a footnote. Historical and geographical references are usually easy to translate. However, if these references are interwoven in the text in a way that it conveys a certain emotional message and the reader is not aware of the historical context, the original meaning can lose its connotation by introducing additional information in the footnote. Historical references that deal with the notion of collective guilt are emotionally untranslatable, although the information can be transmitted from one culture to another. The translator"s main task is to make a distinction between what is and what is not commonly known for an average reader. This is particularly the case with translations that deal with Denmark"s historical supremacy over Greenland. The system of footnotes and annotations mentioned by Appiah as a method of providing a "thick translation" or a "thick description" (Appiah, 2012, p. 341) of the culture translated is in accordance with what the interviewees mentioned.
Scandinavian religious heritage is deeply rooted in their cultural identity, although they perceive their societies as secular (R. Kosović, personal communication, July 5, 2018). As the Scandinavian countries did not have radical ideological or cultural splits, their religious heritage is monolithic, which makes it difficult to translate. This is mostly visible in the use of Scandinavian swear words.
Regarding the question of the necessary level of adaption, the more poetic the text is, the more difficult the translation act is. The same goes for texts that are minimalistic in their style and language, as they sometimes sound too reduced when translated into Serbian without any interventions. Poetry is the most difficult to translate, as it represents the biggest shift from the original. Translation of philosophy demands that the translator is well acquainted with the philosopher and his thought flow in order to translate the messages and content accordingly. Non-fiction, on the other hand, is loaded with intertextuality that needs to be recognized by the translator (S. Vuković Petrik, personal communication, July 4, 2018).
The translators agreed that the act of translation is a form of creative process, where both deconstruction and reconstruction of the text happens. These adaptions can be employed both consciously and unconsciously. The act of deconstruction is not purely intellectual, but also intuitive and creative.

ANALYSIS OF IMPORTED NARRATIVES -NORTHERN EXOTISM AND CONDEMNATION TO HEAVEN
It appears that the representation of Scandinavia supported by publishers is somehow inherently illogical. It represents a hybrid, a Frankenstein, split between two value attitudes -Northern Exotism and Condemnation to Heaven. The perspective of exotism can be found within the represented attitudes towards nature and high appreciation of one"s individuality almost verging on the intention to deliberately isolate oneself from the modern society. The question of the Northern exoticism is most visible the Scandinavian crime novel -Nordic noir. Taking into consideration that the Scandinavian welfare states are known as the countries with the lowest crime rates (Balvig & Kyvsgaard as cited in Agger, 2008), Nordic noir can be regarded as a broader cultural phenomenon and understood as a response to the growing neoliberalism from the 1980s onward: [U]nfortunately, because of economic necessities, this social democratic system is approaching its end. It cannot work in that way. There is, radically, a new level of capitalism where everything changes. The left is not yet aware of what 1990 meant. It was that all modelsthe communist state model, the social democratic model, also this immediate democracy model -have failed. (Ţiţek, 2013, p. 79) Based on the responses provided by the publishers, because of the focus on the inner life in Scandinavian literature and the dark atmosphere of the Nordic noir, this literature is regarded as "exotic", as the representation of the Scandinavian region in these fictional texts collides with the largely positive hetero-image of Scandinavia.
How narratives of Northern Exotism and Condemnation to Heaven correlate can be seen on the example of Erlend Loe"s Doppler (Lu, 2005). The novel functions as a sarcastic social critique which points out the issues and shortcomings of the consumerist society and its influence on the historical subject. The main character is Andreas Doppler, who after being informed of his father"s death and confronted for the first time with things he cannot control, decides to break social norms and rules, rejects the prescribed social conventions and returns to the so-called primitive life.
Andreas Doppler is a well-behaved, successful and seemingly happy family man. He has a good job, nice house, wife and two sweet children, but after learning about his father"s death, he experiences an existential crisis for the first time. He realizes that life is meaningless and that the society he is living in is a threat for his well-being and selfesteem. Confused and overwhelmed by these sudden reflections about life and death,

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Doppler decides to leave his family, job and society and settles out in the forest. The forest becomes his new home and retreat from civilisation. He establishes a genuine and authentic contact with an elk for the first time. At the end, Doppler leaves the forest together with the elk and heads towards Sweden.
There are two oppositions in the novel. The first is the opposition between before and now, while the other is spatial, between culture and nature. Together, these oppositions form a difference between the historical subject"s existence before in the culture, and now in the nature. For the main character, the past is represented as his life in the society, while the present moment (now) is depicted through his life as a hermit in the forest. The past in the society (i.e. in the culture) has a negative value, while the present moment is related to an ideal that has positive qualities.
Unlike in civilisation, there are no borders in the forest, and that is why the forest becomes a more authentic place for the main character. The fact that the narrator feels more at home when he completely cuts himself off from the society underlines the general direction the society is moving towards, although this is taken to extremes in the novel. The modern information society, deeply based on the consumerist ideology, leads to estranged relations between family members, friends and others.
Moreover, the literary corpus which we have classified as Northern Exotism usually employs a literary form based on the narration of the past. The narrator, who narrates from one point in the present time, evokes memories from the past in order to define his or her identity. For instance, the novel I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson (Petešun, 2009) is most explicitly a novel about time and memory and how these two are formative for the development of the characters in the story. Moreover, these fragments are re-interpreted the way the narrator believes they happened. The strong dichotomy between the past and how it is remembered represents a fictional reconstruction of the unattainable reality. However, it seems that the social and political reality stays peripheral to the development of the narrative -Per Petterson"s narrator makes references to the fall of the Berlin Wall as a metaphor for his disintegrating marriage, but does not reflect on the further political implications this event could have for the rest of the global world. The re-interpretation of the past reveals the true nature and intention of the storyteller, which is to discover his own identity.
Identity problems are frequent in Scandinavian literature and can be seen in Merethe Lindstrøm"s Days in the History of Silence (Linstrem, 2015) as well. The main characters, Eva and Simon, representatives of the Norwegian middle class, appear to lack the basic apparatus of how to communicate with one another and how to deal with R U Ž I C A S. R A D U L O V I Ć their complex personal and cultural backgrounds. They appear even more distant, reserved and biased in cross-cultural encounters. These characters may serve as a metaphor for the Norwegian society that is still on its way to becoming an inclusive and tolerant system. It is a system that has not yet answered to the issues of heterogeneity, prejudices and xenophobia.
The Readbreast (Nesbe, 2009) addresses the issue of Nazi leftovers in the Scandinavian welfare states. This is not a unique case where the historical frame of the Second World War, German occupation of Denmark and Sweden"s proclaimed neutrality during the War are taken as the key motifs in Scandinavian crime fiction. The historical experience of the Second World War in Scandinavia is one of the formative elements for Scandinavian crime fiction (Nestingen & Arvas, 2011). Furthermore, Norwegian crime fiction has a stronger tradition of literary figures, such as Harry Hole, a "hard-boiled private detective", which has its roots in the Nazi occupation during the Second World War and the consequent distrust towards the police (Bergman, 2014).
The Readbreast tackles the issue of existent traces of fascism in the Scandinavian societies. The core of the crime revolves around the (re)interpretation of history. One of the involved characters is Gudmun Johansen, one of the numerous soldiers who fought on the German side during the war. Gudmun Johansen, whose pseudonym was The Redbreast (Rødstrupe), was declared a traitor of his country once the war ended. This turn of events was incomprehensible and gradually unacceptable for him. His unwillingness to accept the historical truth has fatal consequences for him, as he decides to confront what he considers to be historical lies provided by the winning side.
These elements from the past are mirrored in the present moment and represent a continuation of the past in the present. The ideology of Nazism and of extreme nationalism survives through the neo-Nazi values. The Readbreast tries to explain how it is possible for a neo-Nazi movement to emerge in a welfare state like Norway. Through the character of Gudmun Johansen, the novel addresses the problems of "denying the history" (Shermer & Grobman, 2000, p. 30), i.e. asks if the (official) understanding of history is correct and/or if it is deliberately ignorant to certain unpleasant historical facts, such as the widespread pro-German attitude in neutral Sweden during the war? The novel, more importantly, raises a question about the present national self-knowledge and values that are accepted and values that are rejected. The accepted and positive value is an obvious concern for the future of the country, while the rejected values are those of extreme nationalism and fascism and violent exclusion of certain members of the society from the public life. The overlap between the elements of the past and present moment contributes to an acute awareness of time, i.e. of the fact that history tends to repeat itself.

CONCLUSION
Cultural translation is an inevitable part of cultural communication, as it localizes particular cultural components and elements between individuals, groups and communities, enriching both cultural environments. Even more so, cultural translation has become indispensable in the new fragmentary experience of the modern world, as a way of communicating and defining the Self in relation to the Other. Together with the processes of globalisation and migrations, cultural translation represents a genuine way of establishing a dialogue from the in-between position of the new historical subject.
The dominant fictional narratives about Scandinavia imported through the translation can be categorised as value attitudes ranging from Northern Exotism to Condemnation to Heaven. These narratives often depict a confused and lost historical subject and its survival in the modern, fragmentary world. The welfare system"s paternalism and dangers of capitalism are often presented with an ironic twist and critique. This is most visible in Scandinavian crime novels, as they usually constitute an implicit social-political narrative. This segment of Scandinavian literature in translation discloses a reverse, darker side of the Scandinavian societies by depicting inhibited fears, emotional detachment and escalation of violence, questioning the inner darkness, and pointing out the shortcomings of the welfare system.
On the other hand, Scandinavian fiction has a strongly private and intimate dimension, and even if there is a sort of a historical reference or frame, which is the case with Per Petterson, the historical event is only taken as a symbol to reflect upon one"s personal destiny. Otherwise, characters do not relate to the outer historical and political events or are deliberately oblivious to them. The represented characters are estrangedthey feel lonely, even when they are surrounded by others. Even more importantly, they do not possess the basic apparatus to relate to their closest family members and friends and consequently to the outer world. More importantly, as the subject of racial, gender and ethnic Otherness appears rarely in the literary narratives, it seems that the protagonists themselves feel like outsiders -they are "the Other within". The main narrative is, thus, centred around a historical subject, lost in the fragmentary society and in search of his/her identity. The solution to the identity problems in the Scandinavian literatures is often found in escapist strategies, i.e. the desire to withdraw from the outer reality. As elaborated by the publishers, these features of Scandinavian literature are received by the Serbian audience as "exotic", which can be understood as a response to the otherwise internationally spread positive hetero-image of Scandinavia. The R U Ž I C A S. R A D U L O V I Ć problems that are experienced in the Balkans seem closer to the identity problems presented in the fictional texts of modern Scandinavian literature.
The cultural differences between the Scandinavian region and Serbia can be detected in regard to expressing familiarity, hierarchical structures in society, significance of language identities, religious heritage and cultural phenomena that are specifically Scandinavian. The task of the translator remains to localize the text in the rich linguistic and cultural context of the target language. The means the translator employs in the process of translation include both the conscious and unconscious methods of deconstruction and reconstruction of the original text in the new cultural environment.
The new life of a text in another cultural environment cannot be predicted, meaning that the original and the translation merge only at one point during their lifetimes (Bhabha, 1994). However, as the task of the translator is to "surrender to text" (Spivak, 2012, p. 313), the original text and the translation should overlap at more than one point. In that sense, there is no big difference between the original and the translation. This is also obvious in the modern novel, which does not demand that much adaption or additional explanations, as capitalism and globalisation have contributed to a creation of a uniform society that is marked by generally the same social and cultural phenomena.
The significance of cultural translation comes under the spotlight in the context of recent events of border closure and xenophobia. Accordingly, cultural translation has an educational and transformative dimension. Moreover, it is a powerful tool in raising the awareness and knowledge about the historical subject"s fragmentary world experience and position from the in-between spaces of cultures. It provides us with the necessary apparatus to communicate our inner selves and understand the Other, that is, to grasp foreignness, alterity and otherness. Learning and accepting the rich differences of human life in culture is, then, the main goal of cultural translation.