한말숙 작품의 다국어 번역과 해외 수용 연구 = A Study on the Multilingual Translation and International Reception of Han Mal-sook’s Works

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines the multilingual translations and international reception of Han Mal-sook’s novels within the broader context of Korean literature’s early global expansion. Han Mal-sook’s works began to be translated and introduced abroad from the 1960s, starting with the inclusion of “The Long Rain” (Jangma) in the 1964 Bantam Books anthology Best Short Stories from 22 Countries. Her major novel Hymn of the Spirit (Areumdaun Yeonga) was subsequently translated into nine languages, including English, French, Swedish, Polish, and Chinese, generating significant international attention.
Drawing on the author's oral testimonies and a comparative analysis of original and translated texts as its two methodological axes, this paper focuses on three central cases-the culturally adaptive translation strategies in “The Long Rain”, the translation dispute and the author's leading role in the overseas publication of Hymn of the Spirit, and the inclusion of “Chocolate Friend” in an English-language anthology—while also examining the multilingual translation strategies of Han Mal-sook's fiction more broadly and its critical and readerly reception across different countries.
Through this analysis, the study shows that translation is a complex practice that encounters particular cultural horizons of expectation, at times being absorbed into them and at times producing fissures within them, and traces—through the translation history of Han Mal-sook's fiction—the more-than-six-decade process, from the 1960s to the 2020s, by which Korean literature has carved out its own position within the landscape of world literature.