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English Translation of Korean Literature: Translating its Arguments and Controversy

  • The Journal of Translation Studies
  • Abbr : JTS
  • 2018, 19(4), pp.185-206
  • DOI : 10.15749/jts.2018.19.4.007
  • Publisher : The Korean Association for Translation Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Interpretation and Translation Studies
  • Received : August 24, 2018
  • Accepted : September 27, 2018
  • Published : October 31, 2018

LEE Hyung-jin 1

1숙명여자대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study intends to explore and analyze contexts of arguments and controversy around English translations of contemporary Korean literature, especially in terms of intentional selection of particular translations for mistranslation criticism by Korean scholars and media. Two most popular and acclaimed English translations of Korean literature so far, Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Look After Mom and Han Kang’s The Vegetarian have been subject to heavy criticism of mistranslation in the name of the translator’s lack of understanding of Korean language, culture and context or of the translator’s choice of domestication strategy, while other substantial English translations of contemporary Korean novels by the same translators, Chi-young Kim and Deborah Smith, have been completely out of public and academic interest, and not a single scholarly article has been written on these translations. These two English translations have been quite successful in international book markets, and highly acclaimed in literary prizes while its source texts were less influential in Korean literary world when they came out. However, the fact that only these successfully received translations with higher visibility and influence abroad despite its smaller visibility and status in the system of Korean literature, have been selected for heavy mistranslation criticism, implies that mistranslation criticism and controversy in the form of scholarly articles and newspaper columns, appear to intentionally target these popular translations with the implicit purpose of blocking or minimizing the potential influence of these translations in the system of the canonized tradition and hierarchy of Korean literature. In this sense, Even-Zohar’s ‘polysystem’ could provide insight into the mechanism of the intended selection of these translations for mistranslation criticism as these translations, while gaining higher status and more visibility to be known as the most representative Korean literary works abroad, become subject to tighter checks and scrutiny in the system of Korean literature, making an issue of the translator’s lack of understanding of Korean language, culture and context, as well as the translator’s qualification. It becomes an interesting counterevidence showing how the success of the English translation of Korean literature abroad could influence and become subversive to the existing canonized hierarchy of Korean literature.

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