In this book launch Dr Young will introduce her new monograph, Translation and the borders of contemporary Japanese literature: Inciting difference. The book examines contemporary debates on such concepts as national literature, world literature, and the relationship each of these to translation, through the lens of modern Japanese fiction. By focusing on so-called marginalised voices from within Okinawan literature and zainichi literature written by ethnic Koreans, and other “trans-border” works, this book reveals tensions and blind spots that serve to decentre the image of Japanese literature presented to the world in translation, while opening critical connections to wider questions of multilingualism, decolonisation, historical revisionism, and trauma that are so central to contemporary literary studies.
Dr Young will begin by reflecting on the current ‘boom’ of Japanese literature in translation alongside the rising scholarly interest in world literature before considering the implications of these developments in light of Japan’s modern literary history. She will then introduce a selection of rich and challenging literary works that remain untranslated and even appear untranslatable, but which invite us to reexamine the terrain of Japanese literature and what it means to translate.
Vicky Young is Kawashima Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Selwyn College. Her research interests lie in modern and contemporary Japanese literature and culture, with a focus on multilingual writing and the intersections between literature, history, critical theory, and translation. She has published articles in Japan Forum and the Journal of Japanese Literature and translated several poems by the Okinawan poet Tōma Hiroko.