著者

川村 明日香 Kawamura Asuka カワムラ アスカ

出版者

大阪大学言語文化学会

雑誌

大阪大学言語文化学 = Journal of language and culture (ISSN:09181504)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.27, pp.55-68, 2018

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The story of the Broadway musical The Lion King is set in a fictional country in Africa. This image is a fantasy; however, audiences feel the reality of Africa represented in it. The present study is undertaken to reveal the mechanisms employed in making the fantasy seem Africa-like. If we regard the whole musical The Lion King as a text, the advertisements and pamphlets included in the production can be defined as paratexts which surround the main text and influence the readers' understanding of the main text. The main text can be classified into two parts; the story and the expression. In the storyline, the only things to make us imagine Africa are the main characters who are African animals. However, in the expression, we can find many things that suggest Africa, for example, the sound of African languages in songs and dialogue, the make-up inspired by African tradition, and the clothing's patterns and colors. These things create a synergy that makes us feel that the stage is an African-like space. However, most of the audience does not know which African language is spoken, and which African tradition is applied to the stage design. Further, although after the translation from English into Japanese the African images of the main text were almost unchanged, there is a substantial difference between the pamphlet of the Broadway production and that of the Japanese production. The former has explanations about the African cultures that are applied to the stage design, makeup, and costumes. In the Broadway production, the pamphlet writer insists that African images in The Lion King have roots to the real Africa. The latter mentions that the Japanese production of The Lion King promotes friendship between Japan and South Africa, but there is not much information about African culture. In the Japanese pamphlet, Africa is presented as a "vast" place with "unique" percussion instruments, and the phrase "a language unfamiliar to audiences" is used to describe as "the African language," Zulu. Thus, many in the Japanese audience imagie Africa as an entity that has a single "African culture." Therefore, at each level of the storyline, the expression and the paratexts different African images are represented. Moreover, in the paratexts, African images in The Lion King are affected by the translation from English to Japanese.