Quaderni di cultura
12
1
2
Aspects of science fiction
since the 1980s:
China, Italy, Japan, Korea
Texts by
Lorenzo Andolfatto, Chiaki Asai, Roberto Bertoni,
Chen Qiufan, Giulia Iannuzzi, Ilgu Kim,
Massimo Soumaré, Wang Yao
NUOVA
Trauben
in association with
Department of Italian
Trinity College Dublin
3
© 2015 Department of Italian, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
Tel. and fax: (+353) (1) 8962062
Internet: http://www.tcd.ie/Italian
© 2015 Nuova Trauben s.a.s.
Torino (Italy)
http://www.nuovatrauben.it
ISBN: ISBN 978.88 99312015
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Contents
1. INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
7
2. ESSAYS ON LITERARY AND VISUAL TEXTS
CHIAKI ASAI, Social concerns expressed in science fiction
works by Japanese writer Sayuri Ueda
11
ROBERTO BERTONI, Eastern and Western
interactions in some Italian, Japanese and Korean science
fiction works
23
ILGU KIM, Alternative reality in some texts by Korean
writer Bok Geo-il within the context of Western and
Eastern science fiction
43
WANG YAO, National allegory in the era of globalization:
Chinese science fiction and its cultural politics since the
1990s
61
5
3. REFLECTIONS ON TRANSLATION
GIULIA IANNUZZI, The translation of East Asian science
fiction in Italy: An essay on Chinese and Japanese science
fiction, anthological practices and publishing strategies
beyond the Anglo-American canon
85
An interview by G. Iannuzzi with LORENZO ANDOLFATTO:
Shi Kong and the translation of Chinese science fiction
in Italy
109
Una conversazione di G. Iannuzzi con MASSIMO SOUMARÉ
sulla traduzione della fantascienza giapponese in Italia
121
4. STORIES
CHEN QIUFAN, The cat ghost
(translated by Ken Liu)
137
WANG YAO, A hundred ghosts parade tonight
(translated by Ken Liu)
155
6
Giulia Iannuzzi
(University of Trieste)
THE TRANSLATION OF EAST ASIAN SCIENCE FICTION IN ITALY:
AN ESSAY ON CHINESE AND JAPANESE SCIENCE FICTION,
ANTHOLOGICAL PRACTICES AND PUBLISHING STRATEGIES
BEYOND THE ANGLO-AMERICAN CANON1
Science fiction as a genre with a strong identity - with an
easily recognizable and cross-mediatic repertoire of themes and
tropes - is a unique vantage point from which to observe the
shape and functioning of a trans-national literary production,
or, in other words, of a literature which presents global
characteristics shared by different linguistic and cultural
traditions. Since science fiction was first published as a specific
narrative sub-genre in the Anglo-American world (the starting
point is usually seen as coinciding with the invention of the
word - scienti-fiction and later science-fiction, Westfahl 1998,
see Roberts 2006), its narrative inventions have often
functioned through shared imaginaries and conventions
1
This essay is a revised and expanded version of the research which started
with the paper “Introducing East Asian science fiction to Italian readers:
Anthological practices”, presented at the East/West SF International
Conference, (Hannam University, Daejeon, South Korea, 4 June 2014). I
would like to thank Professor Roberto Bertoni for his much appreciated
guidance and useful insights offered during the East/West science fiction
research project, and Professor Ilgu Kim for accepting and encouraging my
contribution at the Hannam conference. This text, originally written in
English, has been most competently revised by Judith Moss, to whom I
would like to address my heartfelt thanks. I would also like to thank Mtsugu
Arada for the revision of transliterations of Japanese names and titles.
85
generally accepted by authors, not only in the case of specific
trends or movements, such as cyberpunk, but more in general
through a collective adoption and use of singular ideas and
images.2
In the Anglo-American field of science fiction studies, there
has been increasing attention in recent years to non-English
traditions as well as to the idea of global or world science
fiction. Of particular note are the special issues on global
science fiction and the different national science fiction
traditions appearing in the 2000s in Science Fiction Studies
(without doubt one of the most important scholarly science
fiction journals in the international field), the more recent
launch of a collection especially devoted to world science
fiction studies by the academic publisher Peter Lang, and an
increased trend on the part of Clute, Langford and Nicholls’
Encyclopedia of science fiction towards a global perspective,
with the inclusion of numerous entries on non-English
speaking countries and authors.3
It is evident that translations have a critical role to play in
shaping the idea we (“we” as readers, scholars, or authors)
have of the trans-national science fiction production (leaving
aside for the moment the thorny question of the “canon”). This
2
On science fiction definition, conventions and tropes, see the seminal
work by Suvin (1978), the historical and pragmatical approaches
represented by Rieder (2010) and Gunn et al. (2008). For works of
reference on science fiction history and sub-genres, see Bould et al. (2009),
James and Mendlesohn (2003), Latham (2014), Roberts (2006) and Seed
(2005).
3
Later in this essay and in the bibliography, I will quote examples of
Science Fiction Studies special issues, and various entries from the The
encyclopedia of science fiction, on Chinese and Japanese authors. The
special collection by Peter Lang was announced in May 2014, ed. Sonja
Fritzsche (Illinois Wesleyan University) - see World science fiction studies.
86
is even more true when applied to the Italian science fiction
reader: as a genre and as a label used by publishers, science
fiction arrived in Italy during the 1950s, essentially in the form
of translations of British and American publications. In fact,
the Italian word for science fiction - fantascienza - was coined
to translate the English term science fiction, in 1952, by
Giorgio Monicelli, the editor of the first specialized Italian
publication, the magazine Urania, which was printed by one of
the biggest Italian publishing houses, Mondadori, in Milan
(Iannuzzi 2014, pp. 23-43), and which is still very much alive,
as we shall see in the subsequent pages. Although several
pioneering works had already appeared in Italian literature
between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which
might be considered as the initiators of an Italian science
fiction production (Lippi 2005, De Turris 2001), during the
1950s, science fiction began to be thought of essentially as
translated versions of British and American publications
(Iannuzzi 2014, Saiber 2011). The reasons for this dominance
of the Italian science fiction marked by translations from
English can be traced back to a complex set of circumstances.
In terms of industrial development, Italy was a late and slower
starter compared to England and America and the Second
World War took a toll on the publishing industry, causing a
significant delay in the production of books and periodicals
during the 1940; only during the “economic boom” of the
1950s were the majority of people first able to buy a comic
book, a weekly magazine or a cinema ticket (Forgacs 1990,
Forgacs and Gundle 2007).
Science fiction translations were also part of the broader
cultural influence of the United States which was clearly bound
with the central position of the United States in the global
economy as well as the post-war political situation (in fact,
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American dominance in science fiction publications was
common in other European countries over the same period,
James 1994). Together with the sheer size and vitality of popular
culture production in the United States, American leadership in
scientific research and development - from the space race to the
growth of the Internet - supplied that collective, mass-produced
scientific-technological imagery which gave science fiction its
traditional “raw materials”. In Italy, the translation of science
fiction in English brought with it, along with the translation of
texts, a whole series of themes, conventions, and literary models,
not to mention publishing formulas, making the science fiction
case an excellent example of translation as a complex cultural
phenomenon (Even-Zohar 1990).
Since then, Anglo-American leadership in the Italian science
fiction market has not changed a great deal. Urania, the most
popular Italian magazine, which features a complete novel or
collection of short stories per issue,4 still publishes translations
from English in the vast majority of its issues. For a general
idea, let us take a look at four sample-years from the last few
decades. In 1980, Urania published fifty-two issues, all of them
featuring translations from English.5 In 1990, the twenty-two
novels and anthologies published were all translations from
4
Urania has changed its frequency of publication on various occasions
over the years, but since issue 1486 in May 2004, it has been issued
monthly; the series’ sales have declined from the 25-30,000 copies sold in
the early 1950s per weekly or fortnightly issue, to the 5-7,000 copies per
issue appearing today.
5
Twenty-seven by American authors, seventeen by British authors, three by
Irish authors, one by a Scot, two by Canadians, and two by Australians.
First editions of works written by Canadian authors, such as Alfred van
Vogt or Robert J. Sawyer, usually appear on the United States market, just
as Scottish or Irish-born authors (e.g. Gordon Williams, Bob Shaw) usually
publish with English or American houses.
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English.6 In 2000 out of thirty-one issues, one featured a
French author and four featured Italian authors (two of which
were published as special supplements), and the rest were
translations from English.7 Lastly, in 2010, out of twelve
issues, nine were translations of English works,8 two were
Italian novels, and one was an anthology of Chinese science
fiction (Shi Kong, to which I will return in the pages below).
Through the years, we can argue, the collection have always
reflected the strong position of translations from English on the
science fiction specialized Italian market,9 with increasing
space given to non-American authors, and a hard-won
consolidation of the space reserved to Italian authors: since
1990, in fact, Urania has been choosing the recipient of a
yearly Urania Award, therefore featuring national science
fiction, but always in a sort of “protected area”.
When it comes to East Asian authors, there is a specific
barrier which makes translating more of a challenge, which is
the relative scarcity of translators able to translate directly from
East Asian languages into Italian. This scarcity is confirmed by
the frequent appearance of works and anthologies translated
from English translations - in other words, with the mediation
(linguistic and therefore cultural) of English and American
publishing initiatives and editors, which also indicates - I think
6
Twenty were translations from American-English, one from BritishEnglish, and one from Canadian-English.
7
Twenty featured translations of American authors, four of British, and two
of English-Canadian.
8
Six by American authors, one from a British, one from a Canadian, and
one from an Australian author.
9
This dominant position of English as the first original language is not
something limited to science fiction. English is by far the most common
original language of Italian translations overall - see the Unesco index
translatiorum statistics.
89
- a greater willingness on the part of the English-speaking
science fiction market to risk money on new initiatives (also
thanks to a wider readership, probably ready to try out
increasingly varied fare).
Chinese science fiction is a case in point. In the Englishspeaking world, Chinese science fiction lies at the centre of
some fascinating new initiatives (which often bear witness to
the Chinese-language science fiction field within the entire
Chinese-speaking world, both within China and outside it) such
as the website of the international World Chinese-language
science fiction research workshop, special issues and essays
featured in various academic journals and magazines during the
last few years.10
The first anthology of Chinese science fiction was published
in Urania in 2006, with L’onda misteriosa (“The mysterious
wave”). L’onda misteriosa is the Italian translation of Science
fiction from China, edited by Wu Dingbo and Patrick D.
Murphy, in 1989. The translator from English into Italian was
10
Worthy of note are: the Special issue on Chinese science fiction, edited
by Y. Wu and V. Hollinger in 2013 for Science Fiction Studies and the set
of entries on Chinese science fiction mainly written by Jonathan Clements
for The encyclopedia of science fiction, edited by J. Clute, D. Langford and
P. Nicholls. Interesting essays have been featured in other journals and
websites, such as Yan, Bogstad and Pengfei 2010; Chinese science fiction,
a special issue of Rendition in 2010. Since the 1980s, contributions on
Chinese science fiction (brief histories, review of conferences, essays on
specific aspects) have featured sporadically in the principal Englishlanguage science fiction journals (Extrapolation, Foundation, Science
Fiction Studies). In 2014 Loncon 3 (the 72 nd World Science Fiction
Convention) featured two panels on Chinese science fiction: The world at
Worldcon: Chinese diaspora science fiction (With Emily Jiang, Eric Choi,
John Chu, Derwin Mak) and The world at Worldcon: Chinese SF/F (Ji
Shaoting, Tang Fei, Zhaoxin Lee, Meizi Wang).
90
Roberto Marini, who has been working with Mondadori
publishing house since 1988.
In his afterword, Giuseppe Lippi (the editor of Urania),
discussed the advantages and disadvantages of such a choice:
the work done by Dingbo and Murphy was extensive and
valuable, supplementing the translation of short stories with a
substantial bibliography and an introductory essay written by
Dingbo, while the Italian edition does its best to make up for
the years which have passed since the original publication with
the addition of an essay on contemporary Chinese science
fiction (another translation from English: an essay by Lavie
Tidhar featured in the journal Foundation in 2003).
Significantly, the blurb of the book stresses the presentation
written by Frederik Pohl as being a reassuring guarantee for the
Italian reader of the quality and interest of this unusual
appearance of Chinese science fiction in the collection.
The short stories translated on this occasion were all first
published, in the original language, between 1978 and 1987;
noteworthy are the presences of Tong Enzheng, rarely
translated into English despite having lived and taught in the
United States for many years from the early 1980s
(permanently after Tiananmen, until his death in 1997, see
Clements 2014 c); Ye Yonglie, whose few short stories from
among a vast production have been translated into English
(Clements 2014 e); Wang Xiaoda with the novelette The
mysterious wave, which gives the title to the collection, and
which is also his only work translated into English up to now;
and a “founding father” of Chinese science fiction, such as
Zheng Wenguang, included with his short story “The mirror
image of the Earth” re-printed in various other English
anthologies, in which elements of criticism towards the
91
Cultural Revolution are recognizable.11
For many of these authors, the short stories in this 2006
collection were the first works ever to appear in Italian, and will
remain so. The exceptions are Ye Yonglie, who appeared in
Italy in 1989 with the futuristic-crime short novel L’ombra delle
spie sull’isola di Giada Verde (the translation, in one volume, of
Bidao dieying and Fan Chao-liu, from the 1980s Jin Ming
series) and would be included in the collection Shi Kong in
2010, and Zheng Wenguang, who would also be included the
next 2010 collection (with the same 1980 short story, “Diqiu de
jingxiang”, translated in 2010 as “La Terra allo specchio”).
In 2010 came the next, very different, anthology of Chinese
science fiction published in Urania: Shi Kong: 时空 China
futures: the first anthology ever translated directly from the
Chinese into Italian by Lorenzo Andolfatto (Andolfatto 2010 b).12
Authors and stories included in L’onda misteriosa are: Tong Enzheng
with “The death of the world’s first robot” (“Shijie Shang Diyi ge Jiqiren
zhi Si”, 1982) and the novelette Death ray on a Coral Island (Shanhu Dao
Shang de Siguang, 1978); Wei Yahua with “Conjugal happiness in the arms
of Morpheus” (edited version of “Wo Jueding yu Jiqiren Qizi Lihun”, 1981
and “Wenrou zhi Xiang de Meng”, 1982, see Clements 2014 d, see also
Clements 1995); Ye Yonglie with “Reap as you have sown” (“Zishi
Qiguo”, 1981) and “Fushi” (1981); Wang Xiaoda with “The mysterious
wave” (“Shenmi de Bo”, 1979); Zheng Wenguang with “The mirror image
of the Earth” (“Diqiu de Jingxiang”, 1980); Jiang Yunsheng with
“Boundless love” (“Wubian de Jianlian”, 1987). For English titles, I refer to
the Internet speculative fiction database unless otherwise indicated; for
original titles and years of publication I refer to the authors’ entries in
Clute, Langford and Nicholls 2014, ad vocem. For Chinese names, I follow
here the criterion adopted, in this case, also by Mondadori: surname first,
according to the Chinese convention.
12
With an introduction by Lorenzo Andolfatto and an appendix including
short biographies of the authors, a report by Lorenzo Codelli from the
11
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Once again, the aim of the publication was to give the Italian
reader a general idea of the most recent Chinese production, and
the editor chose to translate works written between 1980 and
2006, first appearing in the popular magazine Kehuan Shijie (see
Clements 2012, Iannuzzi 2015 a).13
For many of these authors this is the first (and, once again,
the last, up to August 2014) translation in Italian, in particular
for Jin Tao, Liu Wenyang, Wang Jinkang, Liu Cixin and He Xi.
Some of these authors are hardly known in the English world
either, while others are now being translated in English and
acquiring new visibility (noteworthy is the translation of Cixin’s
first novel of the “Three body trilogy”, that has been announced
by Tor Books in 2013, to be published in 2014, see Tor 2013).
Only Han Song has already appeared in Italy, in 2009, with the
short story “La Grande Muraglia” (“Changcheng”) featured in
the magazine Fata Morgana.
The interesting fact is that the appearance of Shi Kong in
2010 coincided with a cultural event: the presentation of a
series of ten Chinese science fiction films at the annual Science
plus fiction festival held in Trieste, probably the most
important science fiction film festival in Italy. In fact, the
Science plus fiction festival (science fiction film festival held in Trieste) on
the retrospective series China Futures, and the article “Shi Kong” by
Giuseppe Lippi.
13
Authors and stories included in Shi Kong are: Zheng Wenguang with “Diqiu
de jingxiang” (1980); Jin Tao with “Yueguangdao” (1982); Ye Yonglie with
“Fushi” (1981); Han Song with “Yuzhou mubei” (1992); Liu Wenyang with
“Shanguang de shengming” (1994); Wang Jinkang with “Shengming zhi ge”
(1995) and “Jue dou zai wangluo” (1996); Liu Cixin with “Liulang diqiu”
(2000); He Xi with “Liudao Zhongsheng” (2006). For original titles and years
of publication, I refer to the credits in the Italian volume.
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connection between the anthology and the festival is made
clear in the book, which has an appendix with a general
presentation of Chinese science fiction films and files on the
ten films shown in Trieste. While the editor and translator,
Lorenzo Andolfatto, wrote the general introduction to the
anthology and short biographies of the authors, the appendix on
Chinese science fiction cinema and on the series presented
during Science plus fiction is by Lorenzo Codelli, one of the
major experts on science fiction cinemain Italy. There is an
afterword by the editor of the series Urania, Lippi, as a short,
general overview on Chinese science fiction literature today.
Just as with the presentation by Frederick Pohl in 2006, the
link with an Italian film festival works as a “credential” with
which to present Italian readers with a selection clearly
perceived as unusual. The publisher somehow saw a Chinese
anthology as a risk and it was programmed as an “extraordinary”
initiative, therefore linked to a special occasion (also prepared
by the publishing of a dossier on the previous issue of the
series, Andolfatto 2010 a).
Interestingly, there are parallel examples when it comes to
Italian translations of Japanese science fiction. The anthology
La leggenda della nave di carta (literally “The legend of the
paper spaceship”), published in 2002 by Fanucci (one of the
most well-known specialized Italian publishers), is the
translation of an anthology entitled The best Japanese science
fiction stories, edited by Martin Greenberg and John L.
Apostolou, which appeared in 1989 (curiously, the same year
as Science fiction from China).
Despite the introductions by the editor and translator Ilaria
M. Orsini, and by one of Italy’s finest science fiction experts,
Carlo Pagetti, the anthology is lacking in what might be
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expected from the first important anthology of Japanese
science fiction ever to appear in Italy. It is lacking aspects such
as biographies or notes about the authors, an overview on the
history of Japanese science fiction, and a more in-depth
analysis of its current tendencies. The original English
anthology (and therefore the Italian one) includes authors with
very different fortunes in the Anglo-American world: Abe
K b (with “The flood”, 1951) for example, has been already
widely translated in English (Clements 2014 a, Bolton 2009),
while Hanmura Ry (despite wide recognition in the AngloAmerican world as one of the “founding fathers” of Japanese
science fiction) has rarely appeared in translation (Clements
2014 b, Tatsumi 2000). Many of these authors (e.g. Komatsu
Saky ) had only appeared sporadically in English translation in
magazines, while only a few of them - such as Hoshi Shinichi
and Ishikawa Takashi - had personal collections translated into
English by Japanese publishers such as Kadansha International
and The Japan Times, especially during the late 1970s and the
1980s. These publishing initiatives were devoted to the
translation of Japanese science fiction into English, initiatives
of a kind which does not exist in Italy.14
14
The Italian La leggenda della nave di carta includes all the authors and
stories present in the English The best Japanese science fiction stories
(some of which had appeared before also in various English language
magazines): Abe K b (Abe Kimifusa) with “The flood” (“K zui”, 1950);
Hanmura Ry (Kigono Heitar ) with “Cardboard box” (1974) and “Tansu”
(1983); Hoshi Shinichi with “Bokko-chan” (1958, English translation 1963)
and “He-y, come on ou-t!” (“Oi, Detekoi”, 1958); Ishikawa Takashi with
“The road to the sea” (1981); Kita Morio (Sait S kichi) with “The empty
field” (1973); Komatsu Saky (Komatsu Minoru) with “The savage mouth”
(“Ky b -na Kuchi”, 1970) and “Take your choice” (“O-erabi Kudasai”,
1967); K no Tensei (K no Norio) with “Triceratops” (1898); Mayumura
Taku (Murakami Takuji) with “Fnifmum” (1989); Tsutsui Yasutaka with
“Standing woman” (“Tatazumi Hito”, 1974); Yano Tetsu with “The legend
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On the other hand, the selection of short stories present in
the original English version, is enriched with some interesting
extras: the short stories are preceded by some testimonies on
Hiroshima, selected from a volume edited in 1951 by Arata
Osada (Osada 1951); the Italian edition also adds the stories:
“Time warp complex” by Shono Yoriko (“Taimusurippu
konbinato”, winner of Akutawa Prize in 1994) and translated
into English in The Review of Contemporary Fiction, in 2002
(see Pääjärvi 2011); Takekawa Sei with “On a moonless
night”, from the anthology New Japanese voices (Mitsios
1991); hara Mariko with “Girl”, included in the anthology
Monkey brain sushi in 1991 (Birnbaum 1991) and later
reprinted in English in the anthology Speculative Japan (van
Troyer and Davis 2007).
Another example is the anthology Onryo, avatar di morte
(Onryo, deadly avatar), published in Urania in 2012 and edited
by Danilo Arona (a well-known Italian horror writer) and
Massimo Soumaré (the latter was also the translator from
Japanese). The anthology contains a rather unusual miscellany
of works both by Japanese and Italian authors, with a general
introduction and biographical notes on the authors written by
the editors. As regards the Japanese section, we have short
stories all first published during the 1990s.15
of the paper spaceship” (“Origami Uchūsen no Densetsu”, 1978). For
Japanese titles and years of first edition (not indicated in the Italian volume)
I refer to the authors’ entries in Clute, Langford and Nicholls 2014, ad
vocem. For Japanese names I follow the Japanese criterion: surname first.
15
Japanese authors and stories included in Onryo (with a significant
presence of women writers) are: Band Masako with “Shiabane no koe”
(1996), Inoue Masahiko with “Odoroyu no jiken” (1990), Kamon Nanami
with “Jitsuwa” (1996), Komatsu Saky with “Kudan no haha” (1968),
Minagawa Hiroko with “Tsuki no hikari” (1991) and Shibata Yoshiki with
96
Once again, in the case of Onryo, the selection of authors
and stories from the Far East is presented as a special event, and
the association of Japanese with Italian authors points to how
Italians are seen as an unusual presence in the Italian science
fiction market (as opposed to the canonical role still firmly
attributed to the Anglo-Americans) and thus presented on
special occasions, just as translations from other languages are.
On another level, the focus of the anthology on a horror
theme exemplifies an interest in Japanese horror that tends to
prevail over interest in hard science fiction;16 and the
introduction explains the thematic criterion of the anthology,
the role of onryō and yūrei within contemporary Japanese
horror, and the influence of this collective imaginary outside
Japan, also thanks to the international success of many films
during the 1990s.
Italian readers encounter many of these authors in
translation, in another series - the anthological collection Alia,
published by the small CS_Libri in Turin, which is divided into
three sections devoted to Anglo-American, Italian and Japanese
science fiction (as sections of the same volume until 2006 and
again from 2011; in 2007 and 2008, the Japanese collection
“Tsukiyo” (1999). The Italian stories, which alternate in the volumes with
the translated ones, are: “Antracite” by Alessandro Defilippi, “Fobia” by
Samuel Marolla, “Barocco kaidan” by Massimo Soumaré, “Il cacciatore di
figli posseduti” by Stefano Di Marino, “Vale va bene” by Danilo Arona,
“La donna dai capelli ramati” by Angelo Marenzana.
16
The anthology was initially to be featured in another Mondadori
collection - the fantasy collection Epix, which closed before the publication
of the volume (Iannuzzi 2015 b), but interestingly, when it comes to
Japanese science fiction, the fantastic and the uncanny seem to prevail over
hard science fiction in other cases too, as later in the text. On the idea of
hard science fiction, see Cramer 2003.
97
was published as a separated volume). The Japanese section is
edited by Soumaré. Here, Soumaré translates and proposes to
an Italian public Japanese authors of different generations,
featuring short stories that represent a vast range of nonrealistic narratives - from techno-scientific oriented science
fiction to horror, surrealism, and the fantastic. Some of the
authors featured in Alia, such as Tsutsui Yasutaka, Hoshi
Shinichi and Komatsu Saky ,17 are acknowledged as important
authors in contemporary Japanese literature, irrespective of the
genre in which their work may or may not be classified.
In the Japanese section of Alia, we find authors who had
never been translated into Italian or English before. In the first
volume (Catani et al. 2003) for instance, the Japanese section is
devoted to a sophisticated look at the roots of the contemporary
fantastic, featuring authors active during the late nineteenth
century and early twentieth centuries, such as Yamamura
Boch (Tsuchida Hakujū), Yumeno Kyūsaku (Sugiyama
Yasumichi), Miyazawa Kenji, Unno Jūza (Sano Sh ichi),
Dazai Osamu, along with Hayami Yuji, who belongs to a
subsequent generation. Others had appeared in Italian before,
mainly with short stories published without any science fiction
marker, in literary magazines such as Il Giappone or A
Oriente! (this is the case of Yumeno and Miyazawa), or even
with personal collections and novels, published by small and
medium-sized companies such as Marsilio or La vita felice
(e.g. Miyazawa) or even bigger ones such as Feltrinelli (Dazai)
(Sumaré 2003).
A younger generation of writers - born during the 1950s and
the 1960s - was presented to the Italian readers in Alia in 2004
17
Komatsu was also featured in the above-mentioned collections - La
leggenda della nave di carta and Onryo. In 2007, Alia features a short story
with a historical setting: “Fuori della zanzariera” (Kaya no soto).
98
(Catani et al. 2004). Many of these writers, Asagure Mitsufumi,
Hayami Yuji, Iino Fumihiko, Inoue Masahiko, ta Tadashi,
Shinoda Mayumi, and Tsuhara Yasumi, are extremely popular
in Japan, and they often work in different genres in addition to
the fantastic (especially mystery stories, crime novels, and
young adult fiction).
With Shinoda (an author incidentally interested in Italian
history and settings in her stories),18 we finally see the
appearance of a female author, who will be featured again in
the 2005 volume (Catani et al. 2005), this time in company of
Band Masako, Kumi Saori (Hatano Ineko), Onda Riku
(Kumagai Nanae), and Ueda Ake.
In the 2005 volume, Band represents that production of
Japanese horror already famous abroad thanks to Suzuki K ji’s
Ring (1991) and its adaptations for the big screen.19 In
Soumaré’s introduction, the characteristic use of traditional
Japanese folkloristic imagery quite rightly leads to a
comparison with the Italian author Danilo Arona. Asamatsu
Ken is also an important author of supernatural and historical
fiction, well known in Japan, also as the editor of H. P.
Lovecraft’s complete works (the volume features the short
story “Deichūren, il fiore di loto nel fango”; Asamatsu was also
included in the 2007 volume).
Of course, the science fiction repertoire is not the principal
one recognizable in the work of these and many other authors
presented by Alia. In fact, it is sometimes hardly present at all,
The protagonist of Shinoda’s “Opus magnum” (in Catani et al. 2004) is
Leonardo da Vinci; “Il sangue santo” (“Seinaru chi”, in Catani et al. 2005)
belongs to a vast cycle in which a part is played by Christian imagery
connected to the Vatican and Italy.
19
Especially the Japanese 1998 Ring, directed by Nakata Hideo, and the
American remake The ring, directed, in 2002, by Gore Verbinski.
18
99
being replaced with fantastic, hallucinatory and dreamy stories,
horror narratives, and, furthermore, urban-fantasy, traditional
fairy-tales,20 and so on. The authors (such as Kikuchi Hideyuki
in 2005, or the above-mentioned Onda Riku) often
intentionally work across different genres; this is a choice in
line with the cultural project of the series, which is precisely
that of presenting the whole “archipelago” of non-realist
literature.21
Scientific elements tend to prevail in a few cases - with very
different results, such as in Unno’s “Il caso dell’omicidio del
robot” (“Robotto satsugaijiken”, 1931, in Catani et al., 2004) or
Sena Hideaki (Suzuki Hideaki) with “La pendola del
crepuscolo” (“Tasogare hashiradokei”) and “Il primo ricordo”
(“Saisho no kioku”, in Catani et al. 2005).
Coming rapidly to the present day, the sixth volume in 2011
(Sumaré, Mana and Treves 2011), went back to the formula of
a single volume featuring Italian authors and translations, and
significantly extended the geographical area of interest to other
East Asian countries, adding China (Qiufan Chen, Fei Dao,
Haitian Pan) and Singapore (Dave Chua, Alvin Pang, Mei
Ching Tan, Cyril Wong) to the Japanese presence. After a few
years’ pause, a new version of Alia began in June 2014. With
the new title of Alia Evo (where Evo is short for Evolution), the
publication migrated to a digital format, trying to overcome the
obstacles related to financial sustainability and especially to
distribution often faced by small-scale paper publication.22
Alia’s reader is invited to reflect on the variety and contamination of
genres in contemporary Japan literature and on the importance of the
traditional fairytales and their repertoire of imagery is underlined also by
Inoue Masahiko 2004.
21
“L’arcipelago del fantastico” is the subtitle of the series.
22
See Citi 2014; on the presence of small and micro publishing initiatives
in Italy during the 2000s, see Ferretti 2004, pp. 331-336; and for examples
20
100
With a prevalence of Italian authors, Alia Evo seems willing to
continue its research among East Asian authors, and the
volume features the previously mentioned Chinese author Fei
Dao (Jia Liyuan, an author who also wrote for Kehuan Shijie,
but did not appear in Shi Kong) and the Japanese writer
Kamino Okina.
In conclusion, it may be said that “generalist” science fiction
collections - those collections in the science fiction domain
which are aimed at reaching the largest possible readership such as Urania, tend to avoid risky initiatives, and in the Italia
market, this means perpetuating the idea of science fiction as a
literary product translated from English, while other cultural
traditions are usually ignored. Consequently, when it comes to
the science fiction production of other cultural areas, such as
from East Asian countries, the need is felt to present vast,
representative selections of authors and tendencies, so as to
provide the reader with a general idea (if not a canon) of
science fiction from other countries. This is the approach
followed by the anthologies described above, and the
presentation of these anthologies as special events, linked in
with other cultural initiatives (the film festival in Trieste for Shi
Kong) is a move in the same direction. Their presentation as
the results of specific studies on the other hand (accompanied
by special critical apparatus, introductions and after-words)
responds to a perceived need to guide Italian readers through
uncharted territory and avoid alarming them, by continuing to
stress the exceptional nature of the volume presented.
Stronger cultural projects involving the translation of East
Asian science fiction are to be found among smaller publishing
of the growing relationship between small-scale paper-based publishing
initiatives and digital media in Italy, see Iannuzzi 2009.
101
houses, which sometimes operate with a specific niche of
readers in mind, or with the specific aim of broadening their
readers’ horizons of expectations.
Even though translations from other languages are very
small in number compared to those from English, it would be
possible to extend a mapping of translations of East Asian
science fiction in Italy to other cases, looking for example at
those science fiction novels and short stories published without
any generic label (as noted in the cases of Miyazawa and
Dazai), at their fortunes, and at the intriguing relationship
between literary translations and wider cultural exchanges.23
This is something that I would very much like to be the subject
of subsequent studies, in order to obtain a clearer
understanding of just how important a role is played by
publishers, editors, and translators in shaping our literary
landscape and our idea of global science fiction.
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