Shifting Imagery on the Covers of Clavell's Shōgun and the Romanian Reception of Japanese Visual Culture

The Romanian translation of the novel Shōgun by James Clavell was first published in 1988 and then reprinted in 1992, 1994, 2007, and 2008. This chapter analyzes how the covers of the various editions engaged with the cultural imaginary of Japan in communist and postcommunist Romania. The cover design of the 1988 translation shaped the reception of the novel as a historical saga that embodied a foreign reality as respite from the limitations of the communist regime. In contrast, the covers of the postcommunist editions employed visual collages blending in stills from the TV series, thereby interfacing the text with visual and cinematic stereotypes. This visual shift is representative of the range of meanings the novel took on: from an escapist narrative to a celebration of unrestricted access to foreign media. The iconography and the materiality of book covers resonate with a wider visual and material culture of exotic cultural tropes and form a part of the under-researched history of the impact of Japanese visual culture in Romania.