1970년대 한국근현대소설의 영어번역과 세계문학을 향한 열망

Abstract

This paper examined the sociocultural meaning of English translation practice of Korean Literature within and outside the South Korean literary field, by analyzing various documents which could show the peculiarity of translation system in the 1970s. The 1970s saw the rapid increase of Korean Literature’s english translation by the voluntary participation of various private translators. Their translations, however, were closely akin to unfinished cultural products for domestic use, without realistic foundation such as overseas distribution, promotion and sales of translated publications. The Globalization Strategy of Korean literature, which had been developed in an abstract dimension since the colonial period, was launched in 1968 when Yasunari Kawabata(川端 康成) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The realistic discussions on the possibilities and limitations of English translation of Korean Literature in particular could take concrete shape through the recommendation of the Korean PEN's nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature, the holding of the 37th PEN international Congress in Seoul, and the establishment of the Asian Writers' Translation Bureau in the 1970s. Conflicting between “Korean things” and “the Universal of World literature,” private translators in South Korea had no choice but to return to their “Fixed Rewriting” of Korea Literature, because they could not understand the dynamics of international politics under the cold war system behind the global literary market.