The University of Tokyo Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences
School of Arts and Sciences
Language and Information Sciences
東京大学大学院総合文化研究科言語情報科学専攻
One of the distinctive characteristics of our graduate division is our versatile team of eminent experts on literary and academic translation. Their pedagogical and academic practices have crystalized partly in the form of those excellent translations (into Japanese) of works by Montaigne, Rabelais, Novalis, Rimbaud, Zola, Beckett, as well many other modern and contemporary literary and philosophical works originally published in English-, German- and French-speaking countries.
Our graduate division has also been active in constructing its own theories of translation and cultural studies, building on the recent exciting developments in translation studies in Europe and the United States.
Translation studies are not only concerned with methodologies of transforming discourse from one language into another, but also with the more philosophical problems that arise in the process of literary and academic translation. Work in the field thus involves the examination of complicated mechanisms of textual interpretation, reinterpretation and re-creation, thereby providing new insights into text theory. Equally important are the cultural models the discipline of translation studies is putting forth in the wider context of cross-cultural understanding.
Our course deals with a wide range of topics including the theorization and practices of literary translation, the systematization of techniques of adapting literary texts for films and other kinds of representational art, problems arising from 'cultural translation', and so on. We sincerely hope to be able to provide those students who are seriously interested in translation with precious opportunities for specialized training in this particular discipline.
