An interesting article in the JoongAng Daily about the increasing success of Korean fiction in the English language. The article corectly notes: Translation issues, cultural barriers, lack of strategic marketing, absence of overseas networks have all been hurdles for the international success of Korean literature The article names, of course, Kim Young-ha. It also talks…
An article in the NYT talks about the difficulties translating entities face, primarily the 3% problem- the percentage of all literature in English that is translated from other languages – and how governments are chipping in.
A few months ago I posted an interview with Bruce Fulton – which can be heard here: BF1011_3 Finally, I have gone to the trouble of transcribing that interview, so you can also read it here, or play it and read along if you are working on your English listening: This is Charles Montgomery, from…
Good article on a team that translates Korean literature into French. On Friday, Choe and Bellemin-Nol jointly received the 18th Daesan Literary Award for their latest collaborative Korean-French translation work, “Interdit de Folie (Wanting to Go Insane, Yet Unable),” a full-length novel by Korean author Yi In-seong. An extremely experimental literary work, the original text…
Finally, we get to the meat of the paper – what has succeeded and what has failed. BEGIN PAPER>>>>>> WINS, LOSSES, AND DRAWS The second task of this paper is too look amongst the works that have been translated to determine which of these works have been relatively successful and attempt to determine why. This…
Yesterday I introduced this topic… today I include the section of the paper which assesses the impact of Korean literature by its impact in social media, including Google, Wikipedia (Hello? Wikipedia Project Anyone?). This was just a quick look at how well represented Korean Lit is in comparison to that of Japan. PAPER BEGINS>>>>>> Analysis…
I will be presenting a paper at Dongguk University this Saturday on my impression of successes and failures in translation of Korean literature into English. It is the first of three papers I have in mind: It is a direct outgrowth of my teaching a graduate class, “Discovered in Translation” and most anything good in…
Another exciting edition of PageTurner on TBS eFM. Michael Rhee and KTLIT’s own Charles Montgomery talk about some problems with current translation approaches that have been revealed by research into book sales and popularity. The short version: Publish outside of Korea to VASTLY increase the chances of success. page1108_4
Two interesting articles in the Korea Times having to do with the recent Korea Times Korean Literature Translation Awards – Issues of translation and that pesky Nobel Prize thing pops up again.
An interesting article about a Korean play being re-envisaged for US audiences. The article amplifies a point I had just recently thought of with respect to Korean literature and what works in translation and why. I had been focusing on agency, plots, themes and symbols, and how they differ across the cultures, but it had…