한국어로 읽는 <안나 카레니나>: 2017년 이후 독서계의 지형도와 새로운 번역의 가능성

Abstract

This article is written in order to understand the recent phenomenon of <Anna Karenina> which hit the Korean reading public since 2017. Tolstoy, when first introduced in Korea in the beginning of the 20th century, was most influential as the moralist of <The Resurrection>(the story of "Katiusha"). Then came best-selling of Tolstoy’s moral stories in the very beginning of the 21st century. Now the Korean readership is turning towards <Anna Karenina>. It took almost 100 years for the masterpiece to draw attention from the general readership in Korea, and Tolstoy’s big novel is now taking over the dominant place in the market which had been long occupied by his short, easy for reading parables. It was in 1959 that the Korean translation of <Anna Karenina> first appeared in a book form. The novel did not enjoy much popularity among general readership for almost a half century, until eight new translations appeared within the course of recent 10 years, the three of which within 2 years after 2017, the year when <Anna Karenina> began to draw mass attention. The article has three sections. The first section outlines the reception history of Tolstoy before 2017; the second section closely examines the cultural background that brought a drastic change in the reception of <Anna Karenina>. The last part briefly compares six translations competing with one another in the current book market.