Dr Hiroko Cockerill

BA, Aichi Prefectural University; PhD, University of Queensland
Lecturer
Room 720, Brennan MacCallum Building A18

+61 2 9351 3876

Hiroko Cockerill teaches Japanese language and carries out research in the fields of translation studies, comparative literature and modern Japanese literature. Her book Style and Narrative in Translations focuses on the father of modern Japanese literature, Futabatei Shimei, analysing the development of Futabatei’s translation style, and the influence of his work as a translator on his own writing. She began her career as a teacher of Japanese and Literature in Japan. She then spent five years studying Russian language and literature in Tokyo and Moscow, before migrating to Australia. She taught Japanese at the University of Queensland from 1992 to 2008.

• Literary translation from Russian to Japanese
• Modern and contemporary Japanese literature
• Translation studies
• Comparative cultural studies

• Hiroko Cockerill’s main research interest lies in literary translations from Russian to Japanese. She is currently working on a second book, tentatively entitled “A History of the –ta Auxiliary Verb: The Translator’s Visibility during the Meiji and Taishô Periods”. She plans to trace stylistic developments in literary translations during the Meiji and Taishô periods. Her hypothesis is that whereas the dominant translation strategy employed in Anglo-american cultures has been domestication, which makes the translator “visible”, the dominant strategy employed in Japan has been foreignization.
• She is also involved in a project organized by Dr. Yasuko Claremont, which explores the lives and times of the so-called “burnt-out site generation”. The writer she is examining in this context is Nosaka Akiyuki.

Books

• Style and Narrative in Translations: The Contribution of Futabatei Shimei, St. Jerome, 2006

Articles

• “The –ta form as die reine Sprache (Pure Language)” Japanese Language and Literature, 2008.
• “Laughter and Tears: The Complex Narrative of Shôwa Gesaku writer Nosaka Akiyuki”, Japanese Studies, December 2007, 295-303.
• “From Poor Folk to a Poor Girl: Senuma Kayô’s interpretation of Dostoevsky’s Sentimental Realism”, Conference Proceedings of 15th ASAA conference, 2004.
• “Futabatei’s Translation from Russian: Verbal Aspect and Narrative Perspective”, Japanese Studies, December 2003, 229-238.

Teaching

• JPNS1612 Japanese 2
• JPNS2612 Japanese 4

Supervision

• Translation Studies
• Comparative literature
• Japanese literature
• Japanese language

• “Four Translations of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment”, The 17th Biennial conference of Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) Conference, Melbourne, 1-3 July, 2008.
• “Shôwa Gesaku Writer: Nosaka Akiyuki”, The International Conference of the Oriental society of Australia (OSA), Sydney, 3-7 December, 2006.
• “Futabatei Shimei and Senuma Kayô: Interpreting or Intervening?”, The 2nd Conference of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS), Cape Town, 11-14 July, 2006.
• “From Poor People to A Poor Girl: Kayô’s Monophonic Reading of Dostoevsky’s Polyphony”, The 16th Biennial conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, Wollongong. 26-29 June, 2006.
• “Style and Audience: Senuma Kayô’s Rokugôshitsu” and “The Significance
  of Futabatei Shimei's Aibiki in the History of Japanese Translation”, The 14th Biennial Conference of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia, Adelaide, 3-6 July, 2005.

• Hiroko Cockerill’s research in the area of translation studies has been acknowledged with an invitation to join the conference advisory panel of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS). She chaired the Japanese panel at the second IATIS conference held in Cape Town in 2006.