Entre elefantes e cangurus: cultura, identidade e o fantástico na tradução brasileira dos contos "The elephant vanishes" e "The kangaroo communiqué"

Abstract

This study investigates and discusses some of the factors that contributed to the consolidation of the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami in contemporary times. For the development of this research, the short story collection The Elephant Vanishes, published in 1993, was used as the main reference. This is because it marks a milestone in Murakami's career when he began publishing his works with the American publisher Vintage Books, which led to greater international recognition. This study was constructed based on bibliographic research and comparative analysis of translations, through which we sought to understand some factors that contributed to Murakami's career and that make him so unique, earning him important international awards such as the World Fantasy Award and the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award. Furthermore, the writer's works are interpreted as exhibiting characteristics of the postmodern literary movement and a narrative style that can be defined, through the understanding of Todorov's (2003), Faris' (2004), and Roas' (2014) theories, as magical realism, or even as an expression of the neofantastic subgenre and the uncanny. Ceserani (2006), Kato (2016), and Moraes (2023) also contribute to this discussion. A third aspect addressed in this study concerns the importance of certain historical facts for the writer's career. The fourth objective investigated focuses on the analysis of the short stories’ translations, "The elephant vanishes" and "The Kangaroo’s communiqué", addressing the representation of the subject and fantastic aspects. For this interpretation, elements related to culture and identity were considered, approached from the perspective of Cultural Studies. In this sense, the Theory of Literary Polysystems proposed by Even-Zohar (1990) contributes substantially to this study, since, together with other theorists such as Bauman (2008), Berman (2007), Lanzetti et al. (2009), and Bhabha (1998), it provides relevant contributions related to the influence of culture, system, and society on works. Based on the investigations carried out, it was possible to ascertain that Murakami conquered his place in the Japanese literary scene, primarily by breaking with a high-culture aesthetic, constructing narratives marked by simpler language. Alongside his writing, another factor in his success lies in the way the narratives are developed, based on generic and ordinary characters, contributing to the readers' engagement with the universe of the plot, which is interspersed with sensations, feelings, and frustrations, against the backdrop of a large modern capitalist city. With these characteristics identified, it was possible to understand how they favored a third factor, seen as decisive for the writer's popularity: his entry into the North American publishing market through his translations and publications in English.