1960년대 북한 번역본 고찰 —「비계’ 덩어리 Boule de suif」의 경우

Abstract

This article examines the historical, political and literary features of the 1965 North Korean translation of Boule de Suif. This 19th century French short story, written by Guy de Maupassant, relates the experience of a group of French people who are traveling during the period of the Franco-Prussian War. The travelers represent various social classes in French society at that time. Therefore, from the point of view of the North Korean translation, some of the characters symbolize the bourgeoisie and the religious factions prevalent in capitalist countries. As the first step in studying this North Korean translation of the story, I have examined its circumstances of production, including its historical and social reception and the background of the translator, and have drawn out the linguistic and translational features of the 1965 text. As the second step, I have investigated the faithfulness to the original of the translation in order to examine if it has functioned in the North Korean context as a literary work that originated in an older era and in a foreign and western country. As the next step, I have considered the readability of the translation in order to examine whether North Korean readers have understood what the author wanted to convey, through the prism of the Korean language. As the last step, I have analyzed the political dimensions of the translation, in light of the original text being set against a background of war and of the translated text being produced in a socialist state.