When I read "The Vegetarian" earlier this year, I noted and particularly enjoyed how distinct the book was from novels I typically read in English. The tone, content, and concept were completely new to me, making me think about what books can do and how they can shape ways of thinking. However, I also noticed a distance between myself and the text that I don't typically feel when reading books in English.
In reading these critiques and reviews of the novel, I learned what could be the reason for this distance. The translator, for one, was not nearly a fluent speaker of Korean, the original language of the book. She also took liberties within the translation. While I am so glad I had the chance to read the book, these articles bring up a lot of very difficult-to-answer questions:
- Is the role of the translator to remain completely "faithful" to the text?
- How close must the translator be to the original language to ensure that the translation is "faithful"?
- What role does cultural imperialism play in translation and mistranslation and what effect does that have on readers' perceptions of languages and cultures?
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