Appropriating Foreignization for Culturally Responsive Readers

Abstract

This study explores the possibility of applying foreignization on Gwon Jeong-Saeng’s Mongsil Eonni. Many scholars of literary translation encourage domestication over foreignization, so there exists insufficient finding on the process of foreignized translation of children’s book and the responses of child and adult readers of such translation. Distancing or alienating the target readers from the Source Text (ST) is considered as undesirable by the supporters of domestication. However, despite the widespread notion of domesticating literary texts, Lawrence Venuti offers ways of applying foreignization when translating literary texts of marginalized culture. He argues that alienation is necessary rather than assimilation when reading texts that contain elements of the marginalized culture. Foreign textual elements found in the foreignized text allow the target readers to acknowledge the cultural differences that are easily overlooked when the ST is domesticated. Translation is known to be a medium or tool in exchanging two cultures but the translation fails to play this role when domestication is used. By applying foreignizing translation strategy on Mongsil, the translation delivers the message that Gwon wishes to tell his readers. The confusion and sorrow felt by Koreans of the North and the South due to sudden division and war are key sentiments that the ST author emphasizes throughout his work. Hence, by preserving the foreignness of the political, ideological and cultural terms and notions from the ST, the translation enables a bidirectional interaction between the target readers and the unfamiliar.