Abstracts
Abstract
Megan Backus’s English translation of Kitchen is notable for being both a critical and commercial success. Critics have praised its readability but noted that its translation strategy is foreignizing. Although its cover designs have not been discussed in relation to domestication and foreignization, the strategies are worthy of mention, because they have huge implications for the symbolic representation of marginalized cultures and dominant counterparts.
The American publisher Grove Press uses a foreignizing strategy which succeeds in producing an intelligible image of the Oriental novel which at the same time appeals to readers, and the design accelerated the popularity of this novella in the US. In contrast, the first UK edition uses a photograph of a weeping geisha, even though the main character is a young Americanized Japanese woman. Most importantly, there are no geishas anywhere in this story. The cover may seem foreignizing at first glance, but is in fact, obviously domesticating. This design fits the stereotyped mould of what Westerners regard as “a typical Japanese image,” completely unrelated to the content. This paper investigates how Kitchen has been represented in Western countries, with a focus on the cover designs of the translations.
Keywords:
- Japanese literature,
- Banana Yoshimoto,
- domestication,
- foreignization,
- cover design,
- stereotypes
Résumé
La traduction en anglais du roman Kitchen par Megan Backus est remarquable tant pour son succès critique que commercial. Les critiques ont fait l’éloge de sa lisibilité mais ils ont aussi remarqué qu’il s’agissait s’une traduction de nature sourcière. Bien que le design de la couverture n’ait pas été discuté par rapport à la cible et à la source les stratégies sont à noter, parce qu’elles ont des implications énormes pour la représentation symbolique des cultures marginalisées et leurs contre-parties dominantes.
L’éditeur américain Grove Press emploie une stratégie de nature sourcière qui réussit à reproduire une image intelligible du roman asiatique tout en plaisant aux lecteurs; le design a aussi contribué à la popularité de cette nouvelle aux États-Unis. Par contre, la première édition britannique emploie une photographie d’une geisha pleurant, malgré que la protagoniste du roman soit une jeune Japonaise américanisée. Qui plus est, aucune geisha ne fait même partie de cette histoire. Au premier regard, la couverture peut sembler relever d’une stratégie de nature sourcière au premier regard, mais, en fait, elle relève de toute évidence d’une stratégie cibliste, puisque ce design correspond à ce que les Occidentaux considèrent comme « une image typiquement japonaise », qui n’a rien à voir avec le contenu du roman. Cet article examine comment Kitchen a été représenté dans les pays occidentaux, tout en mettant l’accent sur les designs des couvertures des traductions.
Mots-clés :
- littérature japonaise,
- Banana Yoshimoto,
- traduction cibliste,
- traduction sourcière,
- conceptions de couverture,
- stéréotypes
Appendices
Bibliography
- YOSHIMOTO, Banana (2006 [1988]). Kitchen. Tokyo, Kadokawa Shoten.
- YOSHIMOTO, Banana (1993). Kitchen. Trans. Megan Backus. London and Boston, Faber and Faber.
- AOYAMA, Minami (1996). Eigo ni natta nihon no shousetsu [Japanese novels which have been translated into English]. Tyokyo, Shueisha.
- ENDO, Orie (1997). Onna no Kotoba no Bunkashi [The Cultural History of Women’s Language]. Tokyo, Gakuyo Shobo.
- GARRISON, Deborah (1993). “Books DAY-O!” The New Yorker, 25 January, p. 9.
- GENETTE, Gérard (1997 [1987]). Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Trans. Jane E. Lewin. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- GLADSTONE, Jim (1994). “Putting a Face on Fiction.” Philadelphia City Paper, 503, 8-15 April, pp. 10-11.
- HARKER, Jaime (1999). “Contemporary Japanese Fiction & ‘Middlebrow’ Translation Strategies.” The Translator, 5, 1, pp. 27-44.
- IRIGARAY, Luce (1997 [1977]). “This Sex Which Is Not One.” Trans. Claudia Reeder. In R. Warhol and D. Herndl. eds. Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. York, Longman, pp. 362-369.
- JAKOBSON, Roman (2004 [1959]). “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” In L. Venuti, ed. The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York, Routledge, pp. 138-143.
- KAKUTANI, Michiko (1993). “Very Japanese, Very American and Very Popular.” The New York Times, 142, 12 January.
- LAMBERT, José (2006 [1985]). “On Describing Translations.” In D. Delabastita, L. D’hulst, and R. Meylaerts. eds. Functional Approaches to Culture and Translation: Selected Papers by José Lambert. Amsterdam, John Benjamins, pp. 37-47.
- LAMBERT, José (2006 [1995]). “Literatures, Translation and (De)colonization.” In D. Delabastita, L. D’hulst, and R. Meylaerts. eds. Functional Approaches to Culture and Translation: Selected Papers by José Lambert. Amsterdam, John Benjamins, pp. 87-103.
- LEFEVERE, André (1992). Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. New York and London, Routledge.
- LEFEVERE, André (1999). “Composing the Other.” In S. Bassnett and H. Trivedi. eds. Post-Colonial Translation: Theory and Practice. London, Routledge, pp. 75-94.
- MINER, Earl (1966). The Japanese Tradition in British and American Literature. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press.
- MORITA, Yoshimitsu (1989). Kitchen. Shochiku.
- MULVEY, Laura (1997 [1975]). “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” In R. Warhol and D. Herndl. eds. Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. York, Longman, pp. 438-48.
- SAID, Edward W (2003 [1978]). Orientalism. London, Penguin.
- VENUTI, Lawrence (2008 [1995]). The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation, London and New York, Routledge.
- DALBY, Liza (2005). “Making of.” Supplement to Memoirs of a Geisha. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
- MARSHALL, Rob (2005). Memoirs of a Geisha. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
- Bohemiya (2004). “Amazon.co.jp Customers’ Review.” 17 May. Available at: http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/customer-reviews/4041800080/ [consulted 28 April 2008].
- CHAUDHURI, Amit (2006). “The East as a Career.” New Left Review, 40. Available at: http://www.newleftreview.org/A2629 [consulted 30 April 2008].
- GAOUETTE, Nicole (1998). “Hip Novelist Combines Old and New Japan.” Christian Science Monitor, 91, 11, 10 December. Available at: http://www.csmonitor.com/1998/1210/121098.feat.feat.4.html [consulted 28 April 2008].
- ANON (n.d.). Banana Yoshimoto Official Site. Available at: http://www.yoshimotobanana.com/jp/index.html [consulted 28 April 2008].
- BBC (2008). “Photo Journal: Geisha.” Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/asia_pac_geisha/html/8.stm [consulted 19 August 2008].
- IMDB (2012). “Memoirs of a Geisha.” Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397535/ [consulted 28 April 2008].