『중역한 영웅』이 놓인 자리: 근대 번역전기 연구의 종착점 혹은 분기점(손성준, 『중역한 영웅』, 소명출판, 2023)

Abstract

This article is a book review of Son Seung Jun’s Relay Translations of Biographies of Western Heroes (published by So Myung, 2023) and attempts to re-examine it in the context of the translation research history. This book, which focuses specifically on the subject, time, and methodology and is written in a dense manner, looks like a single submersible in the deep sea at first glance, but was actually produced as a result of active dialogue with the previous research on translation literature. In addition, since the form of the text ‘book review’ itself is spoken in a conversational relationship with the author and should serve to open the door for subsequent researchers to access, this article begins with what the author said, ‘modernization of East Asia, relay translated heroes, originality of translation, multiple originals, translators as cultural mediators, and roles of translation and creation’, and sheds light on the possibility of expansion of subsequent studies. To this end, first of all, this paper examines how the author answers the questions he raised earlier as a book reviewer and researcher in his book. Through this, we can continuously look at the research that the author has been continuing for more than 15 years. Next, we look at the boundary between the results of the previous research on translated literature and translated biography and the results of this book. This is also a question about the continuity and discontinuity between traditional biography, ‘傳’ at the end of the 19th century and the biography of the colonial era after 1910. It also examines the possibilities and limitations of translated literature research that grew with the spread of post-colonialism and post-nationalism discourses and dismantling a originality. In other words, This article intends to use the book review as an opportunity to continuously view, overlap, and predict the flow of translation literature research.