Published in South Korea in 2007, Chaesikjuuija is a dark, disturbing tale about a woman named Yeong-hye who refuses to eat meat, mentally unraveling to the point of believing she is becoming a tree. While I copy edit translations and teach English writing in a translation department, I didn’t know if my Korean was sufficient to do an in-depth analysis of Han Kang’s original novel. And in a nation known for its craving for international recognition, the book had pulled off a stunning coup.īut when I began to hear my students and colleagues complaining about the accuracy of the translation, I wondered: Who would be first to spoil the party? I certainly didn’t want to do it. In terms of prestige, the Man Booker is perhaps second only to the Nobel Prize for Literature. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.When news hit that novelist Han Kang’s The Vegetarian (Korean: Chaesikjuuija ) had won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize last year, a jolt of excitement surged through the country. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

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Using this premise, I present here a relational reading of Smith's translation of The Vegetarian as a critique of the relationship between South Korea and the United States, an interpretation only made possible by recognising that Smith's translation foregrounds the historical relationship between these two nations.

In essence, rather than focusing on the accuracy of Smith's translation, I seek to outline an approach to reading translated texts in their new sociopolitical contexts such that they take upon unique meaning and have distinct value from their source texts. This article builds upon the work of Lydia Liu and Shu-mei Shih to advocate for a 'relational' approach to reading Smith's translation. Despite receiving critical acclaim and the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, Smith's translation was later embroiled in controversy, accused of being inaccurate and unfaithful to Han's text.

Abstract: Originally published in Korean in 2007, Han Kang's novel The Vegetarian was catapulted to international bestsellerdom by its 2015 translation into English by Deborah Smith, a translator based in Britain who had only begun learning Korean six years earlier.

Deborah smith the vegetarian