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Article published In:
Target
Vol. 35:2 (2023) ► pp.242–261

Fidelity or infidelity?

The mistranslation controversy over The Vegetarian

 | Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
This article examines the controversy over The Vegetarian (Han 2015), Deborah Smith’s English translation of Han Kang’s Korean novel, 채식주의자 Chaesikjuuija (2007). The translation, winner of the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, provoked a heated discussion in South Korea. A close analysis of three influential articles – Cho (2017), B. Kim (2017), and W. Kim (2018) – shows how the debates on the supposed mistranslation of The Vegetarian are dominated by a preoccupation with fidelity and literal translation. They dismiss the translator’s interpretation or transformation, regarding accuracy or fidelity as the sole criterion for a good translation. Significantly, the critics’ advocacy of literal translation, and hence their objections to The Vegetarian, reflect three levels of political anxiety: over ‘superior’ translation, over ‘English’ translation, and over a female translator’s ‘feminist’ translation.
Keywords: mistranslation controversy, politics of translation, literal translation, translation criticism, The Vegetarian
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Translation criticism, national literatures, and fidelity in the debates about The Vegetarian
  • 3.Political anxieties behind the controversy
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 December 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.21001.yoo
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