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Metatext, intertext or hypertext: Textuality and issues in Korean-French translation of a classic literary work

  • T&I REVIEW
  • Abbr : tnirvw
  • 2023, 13(1), pp.81-106
  • DOI : 10.22962/tnirvw.2023.13.1.004
  • Publisher : Ewha Research Institute for Translation Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Interpretation and Translation Studies
  • Received : May 8, 2023
  • Accepted : June 14, 2023
  • Published : June 30, 2023

Mikyung Choi 1

1이화여자대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Choi Mikyung (2023). Metatext, intertext or hypertext: Textuality and issues in Korean-French translation of a classic literary work.. The aim of this study is to study issues arising in the translation of Korean classical literature into the modern Korean language and French. Given that the field of literary translation from Korean classics into French consists of only a small number of translators, the number of published classics is not important. When the translation is done by a Korean scholar who is keenly familiar with Chinese characters and translates the text into their mother tongue, they may opt to transfer the source language, which very often consists of Chinese characters with transcriptions, into modern Korean with annotations, explanations and intertext. The target text then becomes a kind of metatext of the original, as opposed to an independent hypertext that can be approached by readers without any intertext. This study analyzes the various steps in the process of double translation, from understanding to reformulation in the context of transtextuality as theorized by Gérard Genette. The key concept of “hypertext” makes equivalent literary translation justifiable, translation being defined as an operation from text to text, not from language to language, and an artistic work in itself. To ensure that the resulting output is accessible for foreign readers, it is essential to respect the relationship between subject and predicate, and between some paratexts and intertexts. The conclusion drawn by this study is that, as the first step in the process of classical text translation, a poet or writer should work in collaboration with a Chinese literary researcher to produce a literary work with fixed meaning, and then collaborate with a foreign language translator, for example a French translator, to be able to provide quality literary translation based on a method selected in consideration of the conditions described in this study. (Ewha Womans University,Korea)

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.