Translating and Interpreting in Korean Contexts Engaging with Asian and Western Others

The focus of this volume is on how the people of the Korean Peninsula—historically an important part of the Sinocentric world in East Asia and today a vital economic and strategic site—have negotiated oral and written interactions with their Asian neighbors and Europeans in the past and present through the mediation of translators and interpreters. These encounters have been shaped by political, social, and cultural factors, including the shared use of the Chinese writing system in East Asia for many centuries, attitudes toward other Asians and Westerners, and perceptions of Korean identity in relation to these Others. After exploring aspects of historical interactions, the volume addresses how the role and practice of translation and interpreting have recently evolved as a result of the development of digital technology, an increase in the number of immigrants, and changes in political and cultural dynamics in the region. It covers a range of historical and contemporary aspects, genres, and venues that extend beyond the common yet restrictive focus on literary translation and includes discussions of translator training and academic studies of translation and interpreting in Korea.

Introduction (Judy WAKABAYASHI and Ji-Hae KANG) Part I 1. Official Interpreters of the Joseon Period (Okkyoung BAEK) 2. Interpreter and Translator Training in Late Nineteenth-Century Korea (Jung-hwa YU) 3. Christian Knowledge and Beliefs as a Conduit for Buddhism in the Translation of Palsangnok (Jinsil CHOI) 4. How Concepts of Social Darwinism were Translated in East Asia: Focusing on the Works of Kato Hiroyuki, Yan Fu, and Yu Kil-Chun (Han-Nae YU) 5. Translating Korea: Re-vising Poetics, Re-writing Gender during the Japanese Colonial Period and in North Korea (Theresa HYUN) 6. Building Democratic South Korea: America, the Cold War, and Wolgan Amerika (Ye Jin KIM) Part II 7. Paratextual Framing, Retranslation, and Discourses of Self-Help: An Analysis of Korean Translations of Self-Help from 1918 to 2017 (Ji-Hae KANG) 8. How Specialized Knowledge is Translated and Transmitted by Media: A Case Study of South Korea’s Business Biweekly DBR (Jungmin HONG) 9. Translators as Active Agents and Translation as an Anti-Hegemonic Tool in the Civil Sphere: The Newspro Case (Kyung Hye KIM) 10. Translation within Affective Online Communities: Doctor Who’s TARDIS Crew as a Case Study (Seryun LEE) 11. A Case Study of Community Interpreting Services for Multicultural Families in South Korea (Jieun LEE, Moonsun CHOI, Jiun HUH, and Aili CHANG) 12. Philosophical and Conceptual Research on Translation in Korea (Hyang LEE and Seong Woo YUN) 13. The Past, Present, and Future of Interpreting Studies in Korea: Focus on Shifting Research Paradigms (Jong Hwa WON)

Ji-Hae KANG is Professor of Translation Studies in the Department of English Language and Literature andDirector of Ajou Center for Translation and Interpreting Studies (ACTIS) at Ajou University, South Korea. Her research focuses on translation and interpreting in institutional settings; issues of power, identity, and discourse in transnational exchanges; and the interplay between translation and digital culture. She is the author of Thongyekuy Ihay [Understanding Interpreting] (2004) and guest-editor of the special issue on "Translation in Institutions" for Perspectives (2014). Her articles have appeared in a wide range of peer-reviewed journals, including Target, The Translator, Meta, Perspectives, and The Korean Association of Translation Studies (KATS)Journal. Judy WAKABAYASHI teaches Japanese-English translation and translation history at Kent State University in Ohio. Her current research mainly focuses on the history of translation in Japan but also in other parts of East Asia and beyond, with a particular interest in the methodology of translation historiography. She is coeditor of Asian Translation Traditions (2005), Decentering Translation Studies: India and Beyond (2009), and Translation and Translation Studies in the Japanese Context (2012), and the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters on translation.