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ORCID
N/A
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Japanese
Degree Type
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Year Degree Awarded
2016
Month Degree Awarded
May
Abstract
The center of this thesis proposal is a translation of the first book of AUGUST Software’s Eustia of the Tarnished Wings 穢翌のユースティア, a 2011 dark fantasy visual novel. As visual novels are practically unknown in English or Japanese academic writing, this thesis will provide an introduction to the medium’s history, as well as common display and organizational formats of the medium; a literary overview of Eustia of the Tarnished Wings and its characters and themes of choice and sacrifice; and a discussion of translation methodology and goals pursued in the accompanying excerpts.
The translation presented consists of selected excerpts from the Prologue of Eustia of the Tarnished Wings, introducing the main characters, the floating city-state of Novus Aether, and the uneasy social climate of the city. Presented scenes are selected on the basis of plot or thematic relevance or translational interest, as well as scenes that are necessary to contextualize plot or character developments discussed in the critical introduction.
This thesis will serve as an introduction to a developing medium that has been overlooked by most academics in the field of Japanese popular culture, as well as a look at the utilization of choice mechanics and branching story structure to In addition, it will present a personal methodology of and approach to translation as related to Eustia’s many and varied characters, social strata and situations, and maintaining individual and consistent voices for different characters and a first-person narrator in fiction.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/8586837
First Advisor
Bruce Baird
Second Advisor
Amanda Seaman
Recommended Citation
Bird, Matthew R., "Eustia of the Tarnished Wings: The Visual Novel in Translation" (2016). Masters Theses. 398.
https://doi.org/10.7275/8586837
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/398