Martin Nordeborg
Senior Lecturer
Department of Languages and LiteraturesAbout Martin Nordeborg
Director of studies for African languages, Slavic languages, Japanese and Chinese, member of the Department board, teacher of Japanese
- Visits: By agreement
Background/Research
My PhD thesis dealt with the first Japanese primary school reader, published in 1873, which was in fact a translation of an American primer. In the framework of the nation-building process it was interesting to see the role of this book and especially how religious concepts were translated at a time when freedom of religion had just been announced that same year. After my dissertation I continued to examine the Japanese translation of the Bible.
Gender and language in Japan is also part of my research and I have combined this with my interest in translation studies. Recently I presented a study on the Japanese translation of Miss Julie by August Strindberg. When the play was first staged in Japan in the 1920s, the role of women in society was being contested, and the question is how the translation from Swedish into Japanese dealt with the issue and how later translations have adapted to changes in Japanese society.
Finally, originally a junior high school teacher, I have done research on literary texts used in Japanese schools but also fiction consumed by young people in their free time, such as the cell-phone novels.