Scandinavian literature in Korea: infrastructural alignment, translation, and cultural mediation

Abstract

This article examines the Korean reception of Scandinavian literature as a process of co-produced literary value, focusing on Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish works translated and circulated in Korea. Challenging assumptions that small language literatures circulate primarily through Anglophone hubs, it demonstrates how Scandinavian writing attained durable visibility in Korea through minor-to-minor circulation sustained by local infrastructures. Drawing on translation studies, paratext theory, world literature research, and international-relations scholarship, the article conceptualizes literary value as an outcome of infrastructural alignment. Translators' ethical practices, paratextual grammars, publisher architectures, and critical mediation collectively shaped how Scandinavian literature became legible and credible within Korean reading cultures. Methodologically, the analysis relies on verifiable public indicators edition dynamics, paratexts, metadata, institutional signals, and discourse rather than proprietary sales data. These are examined across three genre clusters: Nordic noir, children's literature, and contemporary "quiet" prose, revealing distinct pathways to visibility. From an international relations perspective, the case illustrates infrastructural soft power: cultural attraction generated through routine mediation rather than promotional spectacle. Translation grants reduce risk; metadata standards stabilize discovery; critics cultivate interpretive communities, embedding foreign literature into everyday cultural life. By foregrounding mediation infrastructures, the article contributes to reception studies and cultural diplomacy debates, offering a transferable framework for analyzing literary circulation in non-Anglophone contexts.