Adaptations of Western Literature in Meiji Japan

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"As Japan first began interacting with the West in earnest during the late nineteenth century, Japanese readers' curiosity about and interest in Western literary texts gave rise to a variety of translations. Some were translated quite literally, while others went through a process of adaptation (hon'an). Retaining the central elements of the original tale, the adaptations were often quite creatively fleshed out with traditional Japanese elements. J. Scott Miller examines three examples of these Meiji period adaptations of Western literature: a biography of Ulysses S. Grant, recasting him as a Japanese warrior; a Victorian novel reset as oral performance; and an American dime novel redone as a serialized tale promoting the reform of Japanese theater. Miller argues that hon'an was a valid form of contemporary Japanese translation that fostered creative appropriation across genres and among a diverse group of writers and artists. In doing so, he reconsiders adaptation in the context of translation theory."--BOOK JACKET.