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Aproximación a la traducción de referentes culturales en el ámbito audiovisual y literario / Approach to the translation of cultural references in the audiovisual and literary fields
Editado por Pedro Mogorrón Huerta, Lucía Navarro-Brotons y Iván Martínez-Blasco
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 45] 2025
► pp. 92–110

Transposition of a distorted universe

Cultural elements in The night is short, walk on girl by Morimi Tomihiko and its English translation

 | Department of Japanese Dalarna University
This paper identifies various types of cultural elements present in the novel The Night is Short, Walk on Girl by Morimi Tomihiko, and investigates how they have been dealt with in the English translation. The novel relies heavily on connotative elements in the Japanese language (gokan) which evoke culturally based associations in the minds of readers. While the translation accurately transmits the main meaning of the terms, many of the connotations have been lost, and, as a result, the translated text conveys much less information than the source text. The paper recommends that the translation of connotative cultural elements, which has been insufficiently studied, be the subject of more in-depth research.
Keywords: Morimi Tomihiko, translation of gokan, Japanese-English translation, connotative cultural elements, Japanese contemporary literature
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Reading experience as an encounter with a distinct universe
  • 2.Morimi Tomihiko and Yoru wa mijikashi arukeyo otome
  • 3.Culture and the problem of translation — relevant concepts
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Material
    • 4.2Methodology
  • 5.Results and analysis
    • 5.1Results
    • 5.2Analysis
      • 5.2.1Type 1: Cultural references based on Newmark (1988)
      • 5.2.2Type 2: Intertextuality and its parodies
      • 5.2.3Type 3: Betrayal of expected gokan connotations
      • 5.2.4Type 4a: Pseudo-classical gokan connotation: Archaic vocabulary
      • 5.2.5Type 4b: Pseudo-classical gokan connotation: Archaic verb
        and adjective conjugations
      • 5.2.6Type 4c: Pseudo-classical connotation or “gokan”: Idioms written
        in Chinese ideograms
      • 5.2.7Type 5: Exaggeration
  • 6.Considerations and conclusions
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
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References (13)
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