북한소설 『벗』 영역본의 명시화 전략 분석: 감정표현을 중심으로

Abstract

As a North Korean novel, Friend, was selected as one of The Best World Literature of 2020 by Library Journal, an American trade publication for librarians, and was promoted as a Korean book that sold the most copies in France, the North Korean literature is gaining attention in the literary field. According to the cultural identification proposed by Edward T. Hall, the North Korean language and culture belong to high-context culture that exhibits less-direct verbal and nonverbal communication, whereas English and the English-speaking culture belong to low-context culture that relies heavily on explicit verbal skills for communication. Hence, when the North Korean novel is translated into English, the indirect or implicit messages need to be explicitly enunciated for greater understanding of the readers in the English-speaking culture. Out of many cultural elements that require explicitation, emotional expressions deserve a detailed investigation, since how accurately the emotions are translated holds a lot of sway over the comprehension and acceptance of the novel transferred from a different culture. Therefore, this study analyzes and categorizes the expilcitation strategies employed in the translation of Friend and seeks implications for translation of emotional expressions from high-context to low-context culture.