한국 근대 초창기 인도 소재 문학의 번역과 수용―「해저 여행 기담」을 중심으로―

Abstract

This article aims to discover the trajectory of translation and acceptance of Western India-related literature in the early modern period of Korea. Before 1910, the year of the Japanese annexation of the Korean Empire, two literary works by Jules Verne, a French writer, were published as translations or adaptations. This means that India was an important subject of interest to Korean intellectuals who introduced Western literature which covers the Indian issues at the time. Thus, it is necessary to analyze the nature of works and what India-related content appears in these works. The first work introduced as an Indian subject in the early modern period of Korea is Jules Verne’s 『20,000 Leagues Under the Sea』 as 「A Strange Story of Undersea Travel」. Since 1907, this work has been translated from the Japanese language, and it was serialized in 『Taegeukhakbo』 by the translator Park Yong-hee and other intellectuals who were studying in Japan, in a total of 11 episodes. In this article, I first analyzed how and why Jules Verne’s novel 『20,000 Leagues Under the Sea』 was translated and accepted in the early modern period of Korea. After that, the analysis focuses on India-related subjects in the work. In addition, to find out the meaning of the Indian subject matters, first of all, by analyzing the identity of the heroic protagonist ‘Nemo,’ the reason why Jules Verne set the main character who was colonized at the time as an Indian is explained in detail. In a word, it can be said that the representation of the colonial situation of India and the resistance movement of Indian that appears in the translated works in literature for Korean of this period was a “mirror” for Korean people to stand and fight against the Japanese Empire.