From Sunnydale to Engelsfors and Back Again? : 'Translating' Buffy and My So-Called Life across Decades, Media and National Borders

On the publication of the first novel in the Swedish Engelsfors trilogy (2011-2013), which is about seven small-town teenage witches who have to stop the apocalypse, the two authors expressed the love they share for the ground-breaking American TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and My So Called Life (1994-1995). These two series communicated in significant ways with Sara Elfgren and Mats Strandberg when they were teenagers in the 1990s. This paper will focus on how elements from the two American series have been adapted and translated into particular Swedish circumstances in the Engelsfors trilogy. Examining the transformations that such transcultural translation entails, I argue, adds to the understanding of the long-term influences of American productions on subsequent productions in other countries and media. Moreover, the Engelsfors trilogy has been translated into twenty-five different languages including English and may thus in turn have an impact on English-language cultural productions.