Translation and Translation Studies in the Japanese Context

Nana Sato-Rossberg, Nana Sato-Rossberg, Judy Wakabayashi

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781472526502
• eBook ISBN: 9781441118851
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Translating & Interpreting
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Japan is often regarded as a 'culture of translation'. Oral and written translation has played a vital role in Japan over the centuries and led to a formidable body of thinking and research. This is rooted in a context about which little information has been available outside of Japan in the past. The chapters examine the current state of translation studies as an academic discipline in Japan and a range of historical aspects (for example, translation of Chinese vernacular novels in early modern times, the role of translation in Japan's modernization, changes in stylistic norms in Meiji-period translations, 'thick translation' of indigenous Ainu place names), as well as creative aspects of translation in modern and postwar Japan. Other chapters explore contemporary phenomena such as the intralingual translation of Japanese expressions embedded in English texts emanating from diasporic contexts, the practice of pre-translation or writing for an international audience from the outset, the innovative practice of reverse localization of Japanese video games back into Japanese, and community interpreting practices and research.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series Editor’s Preface
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 The Emergence of Translation Studies as a Discipline in Japan
• 2 Situating Translation Studies in Japan within a Broader Context
• 3 A Nagasaki Translator of Chinese and the Making of a New Literary Genre
• 4 Assimilation or Resistance? Yukichi Fukuzawa’s Digestive Translation of the West
• 5 Stylistic Norms in the Early Meiji Period: From Chinese Infl uences to European Influences
• 6 On the Creative Function of Translation in Modern and Postwar Japan: Hemingway, Proust, and Modern Japanese Novels
• 7 Translating Place-Names in a Colonial Context: Two Dictionaries of Ainu Toponymy
• 8 Japanese in Shifting Contexts: Translating Canadian Nikkei Writers into Japanese
• 9 Pretranslation in Modern Japanese Literature and what it tells us about “World Literature”
• 10 Transcreating Japanese Video Games: Exploring a Future Direction for Translation Studies in Japan
• 11 Community Interpreting in Japan: Present State and Challenges
• Index