earticle

영어

While Korean web novels have recently gained an increasing popularity in the domestic market, exports are still in their infancy, in part due to the language barriers. Against this background, this study aims to investigate difficulties related with Korean web novel translation by conducting interviews with four translators of Korean web novels and nine professionals working in a translation company, copyright agencies, content providers, and web novel platforms. The interview results showed difficulties mainly in three aspects: a large volume of texts and weak exports lead to a high cost burden; translating web novels is tricky primarily due to stylistic features, cultural adaptation, and a wide range of sub-genres; and there are systematic problems, particularly insufficient revision procedures and guidelines. Based on these findings, the study provided some useful suggestions and highlighted the need of further research to better understand web novel translation strategies and the work environments of web novel translation.