Cultural identity vs. cultural adaptation in children’s literature translated into Basque

Children’s literature is usually addressed to a receiver who has a limited knowledge of the world and limited literary competence. For this reason, trends in children’s literature translation have been focused on adapting to the target culture. However, migration arising as a result of globalization and the necessary integration of children of different races, cultures and religions, make a double educational and literary perspective essential. On one hand, the literature that shows the values of the local culture in order to integrate immigrant children; on the other hand, the translation of works that show the cultural values of the countries immigrant children come from is necessary; so they can be understood and accepted by local children. Some examples will be given from children’s literature translated into Basque. This new perspective requires a rethinking of strategies for translation of children’s literature, beyond mere adaptation to the target culture. Some proposals related to these new challenging goals will be considered later.