Different Explicitness in Translations of Korean Feminist Literature: A Comparative Analysis of Kim Ji-young and Mother

Abstract

This study examines the English and Thai translations of two Korean literary works, Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 and Please Look After Mother. Using a feminist translation approach, the study found that the four versions employ most of the word choices, sentence modifications, explanations, and footnotes as feminist texualisation, but the translators for each of these novels do not fully adopt this feminist stance. Both the English and Thai translators of Mother portray women as enduringly difficult due to the presence of phallocentrism in their stories. Unlike Kim Ji-young, the Thai translator of Mother employed a more elaborate characterisation to elicit empathy from the reader by depicting the female main character’s great suffering. However, the Thai translators of Kim Ji-young used more footnotes to help readers understand the original’s sociocultural contexts. Some paratextual features, particularly in the Thai translations of Kim Ji-young appear to reflect the original intention of the writers, potentially reinforcing Korean perceptions of both feminist books. The paper also contends that specific translation procedures are indicative of the translators’ supportive ideological stance on the feminist movement, albeit at varying degrees of explicitness in the English and Thai translations.