The Japanese Other in translated literature: paratexts in the translations of Kawabata and Mishima in Spain

Abstract

This paper is a case study of the role of translation paratexts in creating or reinforcing the image of the Japanese Other. The aim of this paper is to analyze factors related to stereotyping in order to contribute to a better knowledge of the mechanisms of representation of Otherness. My hypothesis is that a significant number of paratexts include stereotypes and that paratext authorship (translator, publisher etc.) and the types of translation (direct, indirect, retranslation) are factors related to this. The corpus comprises books by Mishima and Kawabata for which there are two or more different translations published in Spain.