ARE REVIEWERS IN THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD IGNORING THE WORK OF TRANSLATORS? A CASE STUDY OF TRANSLATIONS OF HARUKI MURAKAMI’S WORK

This paper examines the concept of translator ‘invisibility’ within reviews of translated literature. I explore the reasons for this invisibility as set out by Lawrence Venuti, and I investigate the tendency of translators to adopt a ‘domesticating’ strategy in order to make translated works read as though they are the originals. The influence of editors and publishers on translator invisibility is also taken into account. I shall then explain how adopting a domesticating strategy may result in translators being underpaid, and leaving readers with a false impression of the country being depicted in the literary work. The alternative to adopting a domesticating strategy, a ‘foreignizing’ strategy, is also examined. In the case study, I will analyse reviews of several of Haruki Murakami’s novels to see to what extent reviewers in the English-speaking world acknowledge or ignore the work of the translators of these novels. I conclude by suggesting that many of the reviews ignore the work of the translators, but that when attention is drawn to the fact that a novel is a translation, there is a tendency by the reviewer to mention the translator or the fact that the novel is a translation