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1. Words and Their Silos: Commercial, Governmental, and Academic Support for Japanese Literature and Writing Overseas

Author:
Anne McKnight
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
Abstract:
This paper connects in a preliminary way realms of analysis and data regarding practices of disseminating Japanese literature and writing translated in English and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)–located languages since about 2000. The assumption is that translations from different languages have been consistently silo’ed – separated and allowed to accumulate and dynamically evolve. I outline a history of the de-linking of ‘writing’ from ‘literature’ as well as language study itself, which has led to both a withdrawal and an explosion of funding since about 1990. I note secondary effects of re-concentration in English and European languages, a flourishing of small-press activity and writing on food (Jonathan Gold) and self-help (Kondo Marie), and a focus on the ‘authorised translator’ model in both English and ASEAN languages following a tendency to standardise copyright law. Second, I introduce some histories and distinctive practices that could model support for translators. Last, I discuss economies of both money and prestige in different practices, and offer some suggestions based on interviews with an eye to supporting translators so that all languages have a hand in creative practice, and English-language–based translators can collaborate with translators in other languages.
Topic:
Economics, Culture, Literature, and Language
Political Geography:
Japan and Asia

2. The Sun Sort-of Rises: The “Strong and Prosperous” Slogan in Recent North Korean Fiction

Author:
Meredith Shaw
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
Abstract:
Kim Jong-un’s sudden ascent as leader came at a significant time for North Korea—a year that had coincidentally been long foreshadowed in state media as the “dawn of the strong and prosperous era.” Yet the new leader had different priorities and a different idea of what strength and prosperity looked like than his forebears, and this has resulted in notable changes to lifestyle and landscape. In a state notoriously resistant to policy changes, propaganda tools such as state fiction were able to repurpose the existing “strong and prosperous” slogan to lend legitimacy to new initiatives and social trends encouraged by the new leadership. Through a thematic analysis of new North Korean fiction, this paper examines how “strong and prosperous” and related buzzwords have been tied to changes in architecture, culture, science and technology, leisure, entertainment, and daily living. In addition to the author’s close reading of recent North Korean literature, this research draws upon analysis by leading South Korean analysts of North Korean literature and the testimony of North Korean defectors.
Topic:
Culture, Media, Literature, and Propaganda
Political Geography:
Asia and North Korea

3. Byzantine Satire: The Background in the Timarion

Author:
Iakovos Menelaou
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Hiperboreea
Institution:
Balkan History Association
Abstract:
In this paper, I examine the twelfth century Byzantine satire Timarion. I seek to analyse the background of the work, through a focus on the plot and characters, the classical sources that influenced the Byzantine author and the issues of date and authorship which should be seen in relation to the targets of his attack. While there is no certainty about the identity of the author, the Timarion was written, probably, by a learned author who had knowledge of classical authors and medical theories of his era. This is obvious in the way he embodies these traditions in his satire. Similarly to satires of the classical period, the Timarion’s attack is directed at several directions.
Topic:
Literature and Byzantine Empire
Political Geography:
Europe, Asia, and North Africa