Contemporary Japanese Fiction & ‘Middlebrow’ Translation Strategies

AbstractThis paper examines some of the key concepts in contemporary translation theory through a case study of ‘Kitchen’, published in 1993. It argues that current trends in translation theory privilege alienating strategies and that such preference has limited value when considering the Japanese translation tradition, which has been characterized by alien otherness. It then takes up the publication history and translation strategy of Banana Yoshimoto’s ‘Kitchen’ and suggests that a middlebrow translation strategy may be best suited for negotiating the problems of sameness and difference involved in cross-cultural encounters.