일본문학 번역의 양상과 연구 향방

Abstract

The translation of Japanese literature in Korea did not receive much attention during both the transitional era to the modern world and the Japanese colonial era. During this time most works of literature were simply adapted, but not translated. The anti-Japanese policy of the Rhee Syngman Government caused the translation of Japanese literature to be neglected in the period between Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule and the 1960s. In subsequent years, a substantial number of complete works, selections, and novel sequences were translated in different forms between the time of the 4.19 Revolution and the 1980s. Most of these translations were introduced in support of the policy of ‘knowing Japan’. The translations of the work of Murakami Haruki greatly influenced Korean literature in the 1990s. Moreover, during the planning stages of the translation of the complete works of Kenzabur? ?e, an author who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, translations were required to promote ‘cultural exchange’ between Korea and Japan as well as an ‘understanding of Japan". However, the translation of works by Murakami Haruki, including his lengthy detective novels, was more likely driven by consumption, rather than by a desire to promote cultural exchange. The complete works of individual authors such as Dazai Osamu, Soseki Natsume and Ryunosuke Akutagawa have been translated since 2005. Moreover, most of the main classical works of literature have also been translated. It can therefore be said that the translation of Japanese literature has been enjoying its golden age. These efforts have led to the consumption of many different translated works of Japanese literature in Korea. However, the critical literary evaluation of translated works is still in its infancy and has mainly focused on drawing attention to errors in translation and mistranslation. In fact, the level of evaluation has not exceeded the result of a study, ‘The Status and Analysis of 60 Years of Japanese Literature Translation’. Of late, the evaluation of literary translation in Korea has been moving in the direction of translational criticism; hence, the study of literary translation has reached a new turning point. With these developments in mind, a study of the translation of Japanese literature was conducted from multiple perspectives and evaluated against translational theories with the aim of extending the scope of Japanese studies.