한국 근대소설사의 전개와 번역 ― 1920년대까지의 양상을 중심으로

Abstract

This study intended to extract the Korean context and its forming conditions in the early history of modern Korean novels from transition in the translation of novels up to the1920s, and to reconsider the climate of research that has been dichotomized into creative literature and translation literature. A group of Korean intellectuals, who mostly shared experience of studying in Japan in the 1910s, tried in earnest to have the novel settled down in the domain of ‘pure literature’ through the two channel of creation andtranslation. Particularly, they advocated necessity for the translation of world literatureand practiced translation in person so as to further the development of the Korean literary world, which was then subpar both in quality and quantity. Their practice of translation produced tangible results of forming the 1st period of prosperity in translated novels in the 1910s and the 2nd period of prosperity in the 1920s. Changes in the nature of the process may be condensed into the strengthening of the translation of pure literature novels, among which Russian and French novels were conspicuous and in terms of style. However, the existing way of understanding that distinguishes the 1920s from the previous periods in terms of the qualitative and quantitative expansion of the pure literature translation requires critical review. First, although the amount of translations increased sharply, it is difficult to regard it as a sharp increase in the true sense of the term, considering the level of increase in literary magazines. Further, the tendency of quantitative rise itself began to slow down from the middle of the 1920s. This is a unique phenomenon that contrasts with the situations of ever-increasing translations in Japan and China during the same period. In addition, there was a pronounced tendency towards a concentration of translation in works of pure literature, which, however, did not represent a overwhelming proportion in the overall literature. Rather, both the translation of canon-level novels, which deserve to be classified as must-reads, and that of short stories, production of which is relatively easy, were losing ground. Newspapers serialized translated popular novel, and the novel sections of magazines were mostly occupied by creative short stories. The sluggishness in the translation of pure literature perceived within the internal context of translation literature in the 1920s forms the causal relationship with two limitations in the history of Korean modern novel. The first is failure in the expansion of the reader base for pure literature, which acted as a link of a vicious circle that was accompanied by unstable economic circumstances and creation conditions for writers. The second is the failure of the literary world in the colonial period to be friendly with the creation of “long” literary works, which ultimately represents a problem linked to the stylish sense of ‘full-length = popular / short = artistic’ that became permanent in the history of Korean modern novel. To explain the background behind sluggishness in the translation of pure literature and excessive creation in inverse proportion to it, the desire of literary people in the colonial period who were continuously aware of the antithesis, i.e., the Japanese literary world and were impatient to overcome the time gap in literary history, as well as the problems of bilingual environment and the publishing market in the colonial period should be considered.