Bending conventions: agency and self-portrayals in Japanese translator commentary

Abstract

: The recent surge of interest in the figure of the translator has brought translator-authored writing into the spotlight in Translation Studies. Investigations into translator commentaries (in-book paratexts such as prefaces and afterwords) have generally mined them for data about translation history and procedures. Yet translator commentary also offers a potential space where translators can stake positions as cultural agents through first-person writing. This article investigates how translators present themselves in such texts, using Japanese literary translators as an example. It takes a random sample of Japanese translator commentaries from books in various literary genres, establishes their textual conventions, and then performs close readings of five commentaries to explore how translators write themselves into their text. The translators show themselves to be concerned with how their writing is received. Some use devices such as pastiches and anecdotes to entertain and inform readers, asserting their voice as writers. Others frame their identity as members of literary communities or socially conscious individuals. In so doing, they project identities as cultural agents. Consequently, this study argues that translator commentary should be re-examined in translation studies as a potential site of subjective expression and positioning in the literary field.