earticle

영어

The novel 『채식주의자』and its translation, The Vegetarian, have dealt a blow to the Korean literary field by winning the Man Booker International Prize, a mark of international distinction for both the author and the translator. What critiques say about the novel is that it is unforgettably powerful, shocking and lyrical. This study delved into the linguistic features that deliver the powerful, shocking, and at the same time, lyrical and rhythmic feeling based on the frame of Systemic Functional Linguistics, which represents experiential, interpersonal, and textual meanings of texts. At the experiential level, the translator intentionally transformed many sentences into the ones with inanimate actors doing active actions. At the interpersonal level, she inserted adverbs that enhanced the intensity of expressions, which all added up to powerful and intense feeling of the text. Last, at the textual level. The translator added or changed certain words to make the text more cohesive and rhythmic. Such interventions by the translator are in line with discursive features that are known to be used to produce fluency in an English translation, making it invisible or transparent as a translation to target readers. The invisibility of translations and translators is one of the values that have prevailed in Anglo-American culture. Ironically, however, The Vegetarian and its translator have become visible due to the translator's effort to make the translation invisible and the institutional support of awarding the prize to the translator as well as the author at the same time. Although many translators seek fluency in their translation, making invisible their status as translators, their status could be gradually surfaced and become visible, moving up from their '2nd-order status', when the institutional efforts and supports are stepped up further.