INTRODUCING A WRITER IN A FOREIGN CULTURAL SPACE THROUGH THE PARATEXT: FUNCTIONS OF THE BACK-COVER BLURBS IN THE ROMANIAN EDITIONS OF MISHIMA YUKIO’S NOVELS

Abstract

In the case of literary translations from Japanese into Western languages, paratextual elements such as book blurbs are one of the tools through which the contact between the target-culture readers and the literary work is mediated. The purpose of this study is to determine the role of back-cover blurbs in the process of introducing and promoting a foreign author in a new culture – in our case, the Japanese writer Mishima Yukio (1925-1970) in Romania. Throughout this article, I will present six functions of blurbs which contribute to creating a specific image of a foreign writer and his work in the target cultural space: 1. (re)confirming his literary value and including him in a literary canon; 2. presenting the book-to-screen adaptations of his novels; 3. illustrating similarities between Mishima’s style and the style of some famous authors from the European cultural space; 4. marking the cultural difference; 5. referring to other valences of Mishima Yukio’s literary works; 6. exposing the universal character of Mishima Yukio’s literary work.