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Between Domestication and Foreignization: A Study of English and Korean Translations of the Japanese Novel The Old Capital

Han Sung Kim 1

1서울대학교

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ABSTRACT

A translator negotiates two strategies of translation, domestication and foreignization. Domesticated translation and foreignized translation seem mutually hostile; however, they can coexist in the practice of translation such as Kawabata Yasunari’s novel The Old Capital, cited and lauded by the Nobel Literature Committee in 1968. Kawabata self-orientalizes Kyoto throughout the text, and the English and Korean translators are likely to domesticate such oriental atmosphere in some parts and foreignize Japanese tradition in other parts. In this paper, I explore how the English and Korean translators resist or comply with the original. I realize that the English translator attempts to tone down the author’s criticism of the US afflicting Postwar Japan. I also find that the Korean translator deliberately revises the source text when it evokes memories of the Japanese colonial rule in Korea. As America, Japan, and Korea have influenced each other throughout the twentieth century, domesticated translation reflects the hegemonic struggle between these societies. Nonetheless, the English and Korean translators attempt to preserve the foreign identity of the source at the same time. A translator compromises two strategies of translation based on his or her reading and understanding. When we look into how a translator coaxes the Japanese language into English and Korean, the cultural difference across the Pacific and Korean Strait emerges self-evidently. Understanding cultural difference and respecting diverse local color will be the first step to motivate transcultural and transnational exchange between American, Japanese, and Korean society.

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