펄 벅의 <대지> 재번역 양상에 대한 소고

Abstract

This paper aims to classify diverse aspects of retranslation and examine its motives and causes. To this end, this study analyzes Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth and 19 Korean translations. In general, a number of factors trigger retranslation: changes in the society, culture, language, copyright, censorship, and so forth. Some oppose to retranslation on grounds that translations which are temporally close to the original work better reflect the language and spirit of the source text. In most cases, however, the need for retranslation increases with the lapse of time, as most target text readers face difficulty in filling the temporal gap. Due to such reasons, retranslation is naturally carried out in almost every country. In Korea, western literary works were translated and retranslated into Korean with exceptional frequency not only because of such general causes and motives: retranslation in Korea is primarily attributable to the changes in the Korean Language Regulations and to the movement towards using pure Korean words after a long-standing tradition of using Chinese characters and Sino-Korean words. Of course, general agents of retranslation, such as changes in word preference and book size also gave rise to retranslation. The author hopes this research will contribute to the debates on retranslation and trigger the retranslation of existing works.