Translating Somebody Else’s Other(s) - Translation of Shōjo Manga Occidentalism: 'The Heart of Thomas'

The present study explores how certain aspects of the classic Japanese shōjo manga (girls’ comics) work, Tōma no shinzō (Hagio, 1974), were translated into English, translation which was published almost 40 years after the publication of the original text.

The work is marked by the presence of a heightened occidentalism and androgynous beautiful boy characters, which are features intrinsic to shōjo manga. The study discusses the background to these features which shows the strong connection between shōjo manga and its readers and analyses how these elements are linguistically expressed in the original, and then translated.

The hybrid world of Tōma no shinzō, which is disconnected from the reality of its readers, both through its exoticism and its characters, enables the translations to maintain the world inhabited by the original work without any major concessions to authenticity. 

Presenter: Dr Hiroko Inose (Dalarna University, Sweden)

About the speaker

Dr Hiroko Inose is currently working as a senior lecturer in the Japanese department at the Dalarna University (Sweden), where she teaches courses on Japanese-English translation and Japanese popular culture.

Her main research interest includes translation of culture, literary translation, and translation of works of popular culture (especially manga). The language combination she mainly works with include Japanese-English and Japanese-Spanish.