The Appetite for Revenge and Murder in Translation ：Japanese Mystery Novels and their Social Media Savvy Indonesian Readers

Abstract

The high volume of published translations of Japanese mystery novels in Indonesia poses questions about Indonesian publishers’ aims in relation to their readers’ appetite for the genre. The translation of Girls in the Dark by Rikako Akiyoshi has been reprinted 14 times (October 2019) while that of Confessions by Kanae Minato has been six times (May 2020). In the functionalist approach to translation, translators take account of the importance of having optimal communicative effects on the target audience. In this light, this study sheds light on the consumption, interpretive and creative practices of the readers of these translations, and on how they share their thoughts via their own social media platforms, through the conceptual framework of the active audience and of participatory culture. The study employs a digital ethnography approach in its data collection, and interviews with translators, readers and others for data confirmation. It aims to explore readers’ construction of a perspective on translated texts in the context of publishers’ intentions, through observation of the social media posts and uploads of all concerned. The findings show that such readers are primarily young females who are savvy social media users who identify themselves as content creators. Most are book community members and not necessarily obsessive about Japanese popular culture. They display awareness of the social critiques within these stories, particularly in relation to the family and mother-child relationships, which is parallel to publishers’ framing.