AStudy of Reoepition of the Brontes in Japan

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The purpose of this research project is to trace the history of the reception of the Brontes from the earliest stage of general introduction in the late 1880s to the appearance of complete Japanese translations in the 1930s. In order to overview the public reception of the Brontes, I carried out research on the following three periods and medium. (1) the Meiji Era: magazines and an abridged translation by Futo Mizutani (2) the Taisho Era: articles, reviews, and annotated editions in literary magazines, and (3) the Early Showa Era: translations. A detailed discussion was given especially to Jane Eyre.(1) Survey of the articles in Jogakuzashi(The Women's Magazine), one of the most influential women's magazine in MEW Era, showed that the Brontes were presented as an ideal model for Japanese women who were encouraged to be enlightened as the population of a civilized nation. Although the first abridged translation of Jane Eyre appeared in 1896, it proved to be unpopular I examined the poss … More ible reasons and concluded that the Japanese were not yet ready to accept an indomitable heroine who sought after independence of will and attained a loving marriage against all conventionalities of the time because the ideas of the self independence and passionate love were unfamiliar to the common readers at that time in Japan.(2) In the 1900s, articles, reviews and annotated English texts started to appear in literary journals. The research showed that they were strongly influenced by the critical studies abroad of the time. These articles and reviews were mainly fir literary scholars and students instead of the common readers who were not given Japanese translations of the Bronte novels yet. However, the detailed textural study during this period apparently paved the way for the appearance of complete translations of the Brontes in the following decades.(3) In the 1930s we have complete Japanese editions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in succession. A close study of Japanese translations of Jane Eyre by Gisaburo Juichiya, a novelist, revealed that his translating work was closely related with his own creation of novels: self, loneliness, passion for life and several other key words were shared between Jane Eyre and Juichiya's literary work.The whole study project covered the half century between the 1880s and the 1930s and successfully showed how Japanese readers encountered, digested, and produced and enjoyed their own Jane Eyre in Japanese. Less