Self-translation or vernacular literature? A comparative study of the works of Yone Noguchi, Akira Mizubayashi and Yoko Tawada

Abstract

The literature written by migrants belongs to a particular type, since the mother tongue of these authors is always different from the language in which they write. Is it a translation made by the author himself or herself, or is it simply a text written in a foreign language by a foreigner? In this piece of research the authors scrutinize the works of three Japanese authors who published each in a different language. These works are analyzed so as to assess the extent to which nikkei authors still show tracks of their mother tongue in their literary work. The question is to know if they have translated themselves, or if they are simply foreigners who have written in a foreign language. The results of this research seem to show that the ways in which Japanese authors confront a foreign culture and its language can vary, but the topics on which they write are, with very few exceptions, very similar and focus on their difficulties in adapting to a new culture. The way they translate themselves and the way they deal with the foreign language depend, on the one hand, on the personality of the author and, on the other, on the type of host society and on the historic moment.