Three worlds of literary translation production: art or (just) commerce?

Purpose Our aim is to answer the question whether Bourdieu’s theory of the bipolarity of commerce and art can serve as an effective analytical framework for researching literary (translation) production. Design/methodology/approach We rely on Bourdieu’s cultural field theory, combine grounded theory and situational analysis methodologies and conduct semi-structured interviews with actors involved in the production, circulation and reception of literary translations into Czech. Findings Based on the data analysis, we identified a discursive arena focused on the relationship between the editorial and the business plans. Three social worlds enter it: small publishers, medium-sized publishers and large publishers. The actors in these three worlds act differently; their choices are influenced by two key structures: (1) the purchase of translation rights and literary agencies and (2) distribution. By applying Bourdieu’s theory, by comparing the Czech book market with “big” book markets and by analyzing our data, we developed a theory of three worlds. It shows that there is not a sharp boundary between commerce and art. Originality/value Our results demonstrate that Bourdieu’s theory can still be used as an analytical tool if the specific conditions of the given book market are considered. This contributes to the further application of his theory while also pointing out its limits. The findings are relevant to the Czech social and cultural conditions but are applicable to other “small” book markets with peripheral languages.