October 14, 2014/ 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

UCLA Royce Hall Room 243

Orientation, error, and the Issei novel

Presentation by Andrew Leong, Northwestern University

Originally serialized in L.A.-based Japanese newspaper Rafu Shimpo from 1925 to 1926, The Tale of Osato, written by Shoson Nagahara and originally published in 1925, is but one example of the many Japanese-language literary works published by Japanese living in the United States during the early twentieth century. This lecture reflects on the pitfalls of recovering and translating works like The Tale of Osato. Instead of viewing recovery and translation as processes of eliminating or minimizing error, this lecture explores the possibilities opened by interpreting errors as slips or traces of the multiple "hands" that surround a text – a community of readers, writers, and editors which might not be visible except through error.

Andrew Leong is Assistant Professor of English and Japanese Literature at Northwestern University. He is the English translator of The Tale of Osato (Kaya Press, 2012).