earticle

영어

This study is to show how important images are in translating different cultures. Out of curiosity about how foreign readers would perceive Korean culture, this study reviews two English translations of Dong-ri Kim's Muneodo to see how cultural references are translated. Muneodo is one of the most prominent works of the author and carries a lot of shamanism-related references. It found that, regardless of translational approaches taken, cultural references are susceptible to changes in their represented images, which can create quite big discrepancies between; relations that the source text has with its readers and that of the target text with its readers; the imagined world that the source text readers conjure up and that of the target text readers; and the understanding of the source text readers and that of the target text readers. Although this occurs in translations from English to Korean too, in consideration that Western readers often lack an understanding of so-called the lesser known language and culture including Korean, further contemplation of cultural references and their images is needed in translation.