번역의 시대, 번역가의 목소리: 손성준, 『중역한 영웅: 근대전환기 한국의 서구영웅전 수용』, 소명출판, 2023

Abstract

This article is a book review of Son Sung-jun’s Relay Translations of Biographies of Western Heroes in Korea During the Modern Transition Period. In order to examine the research-historical significance of this book, this article focuses on the activism of the translating subject and the three-dimensional nature of the translated text. The translated hero during the modern transition period was a channel for acquiring world historical knowledge and reflected the guidelines for overcoming the times. However, the Western hero had a variable that could be mistaken for an empire builder. Moreover, Joseon was not in a position to accept the logic of the strong. In this respect, the author does not interpret the translation of the Western heroic novel as an indiscriminate follower of imperialism, but suggests the possibility of reading it as a Korean variant of the theory of social evolution. The biography of Western heroes provided an opportunity to sense the meaning and possibility of the ‘revolution’ and made it possible to imagine various political bodies. In particular, the author paid attention to Liang Qichao in terms of creating a new original. Liang Qichao’s translation served as a ‘transistor’ to allow the heroes to be observed from various angles. The method of interpreting the same object in different ways was not limited to translation between languages. The author emphasised ‘internal diversity’ by excavating the voices of several translators, rather than defining the shape of the hero as changed by the translator's intention and purpose as ‘national specificity’. Son Sung-jun’s discussion is an important research achievement that specifically shows the East Asian traversal of modern knowledge based on empirical analysis. This article sheds light on the significance of this book, focusing on the author's restoration of the subjective voice of the translator and the presentation of the dynamism and diversity of knowledge through the heroes of the modern transitional period.