The Other Reflected in Book Covers: Japanese Novel Translations in Spain

Abstract

reflejado en las cubiertas de libros: traducciones de novela japonesa en España alba serra-vilella universitat autònoma de barcelona abstract: This paper aims to analyze the image of the Other in the covers of novels translated from Japanese and published in Spain from 1904 to 2014. Based on the idea that translations contribute to the formation of cultural images and that paratexts play an important part, this study comprises a content analysis of 432 covers and a qualitative interpretation of the obtained data, for which the notions of orientalism and polysystem have been useful. The results show that covers of Japanese translated books are strongly marked by stereotypes, reinforcing exoticism in the presentation of the Other through the use of traditional images, having recourse to femininity, anachronism and ukiyo-e. The results show that the use of tradition has followed a percentually decreasing trend in the last years, but femininity remains highly present without following a clear pattern. Exoticism provides a distorted image that may hinder understanding of the Other, being this contrary to the approaching of cultures which is one of the functions usually attributed to translation.

Book Covers and State Translation Programs: A Multimodal Approach to Book Covers in the Panda Books Series

“…Some studies have selected larger numbers of covers (e.g., M. Jiang, 2021; Mossop, 2018; Serra-Vilella, 2018; Torres-Simon, 2015), their analyzes depend largely on the researchers’ subjective judgments and interpretations, lacking a theoretical framework to systematically capture visual meanings as conceptualized in Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar (2006) which will be used in this study.…”

“…All these studies attest to the validity and applicability of multimodal theories in research on translated book covers, but their research objects are restricted to a single source work. Some studies have selected larger numbers of covers (e. g., M. Jiang, 2021;Mossop, 2018;Serra-Vilella, 2018;Torres-Simon, 2015), their analyzes depend largely on the researchers' subjective judgments and interpretations, lacking a theoretical framework to systematically capture visual meanings as conceptualized in Kress and van Leeuwen's visual grammar (2006) which will be used in this study.…”

The Japanese Other in translated literature: paratexts in the translations of Kawabata and Mishima in Spain

“…Notion used bySerra-Vilella (2018).12 It would be difficult, and clearly beyond the purpose of this paper, to identify what is a real geisha, or a picture imitating a geisha, or a woman in traditional outfit belonging to a different category, such as an Oiran (word used during some periods of history for high ranked prostitutes). Nevertheless, we considered it appropriate to include all these images in one category, all of them having in common the fact of being presumably recognized by the general public as "geisha", and therefore reinforcing a stereotyped image of Japanese women.…”