The Ambilaterality of Fluency in Translating Literature in Peripheral Contexts

Abstract

Translation history shows that linguistic ethnocentrism and cultural hegemony have influenced translating from antiquity to today. One of the prominent results of such influence is fluency in translating literature. As Venuti points out, in British, American and European contexts, fluency in translating foreign texts has prevailed over other translation strategies, constituting a melting pot where heterogeneous elements are melted together into harmonious ones which are acceptable to dominant cultures. In the process, the differences and the identity of other cultures are erased or reduced so as to be almost invisible. As an ethical strategy against such violence on the source culture, literalism or foreignization has been proposed among Western scholars. In peripheral contexts, however, literalism may not be an ethical strategy but instead may actually inflict violence on the source culture. When translating from a minority-status language culture to a dominant culture, for example, it may produce potentially unreadable texts, increasing the risk of readers being excluded, and thereby confining texts within the national border by closing off the possibilities of texts being circulated throughout the world. These peripheral contexts have rarely been discussed in translation studies. What does fluency strategy mean in peripheral contexts in the case of translating from a minority-status language culture to a dominant target language? What would be the influence of this strategy on the source culture beyond national borders? This paper aims to investigate these questions using the example of the Korean novel Please Look after Mom, a million-copy seller in South Korea, which was translated into English in 2009 and won popularity among English-speaking readers. It argues that fluency strategy constitutes a strategic progressive invasion into a dominant culture in peripheral contexts.