War, Patriotism and Nationality in the Norwegian and Swedish Translations of Cherry Ames

Abstract

Helen Wells’ novels of the nurse Cherry Ames follow the protagonist through student nursing to her life as a practicing registered nurse. The books, featuring her military service, were soon translated, reaching Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. This article focuses on how the themes of war, patriotism, and nationality are translated in the Norwegian and Swedish translations of Cherry Ames. When comparing these two countries, it is notable that the literature for young girls was somewhat scarcer in Norway in the middle of the twentieth century, where this kind of book had not been highly prioritized during the war. This article also focuses on how the representations of war, patriotism, and nationality are translated into Norwegian and Swedish and how the same themes are depicted on the respective book covers. Bearing in mind that Norway participated in the war, and Sweden did not, it is interesting to investigate whether war and patriotism are rendered differently in the Norwegian and the Swedish target texts and whether the American patriotism is preserved or in some way “domesticated” to make the novels more Scandinavian.