I attempted to make lists of all literary works translated in Korean from the year 1960, arranging them in chronological order as like Middle Ages, Golden Ages, 18th and 19th century, 20th century and 21st century. In order to carry out the proposed i ...
I attempted to make lists of all literary works translated in Korean from the year 1960, arranging them in chronological order as like Middle Ages, Golden Ages, 18th and 19th century, 20th century and 21st century. In order to carry out the proposed investigation, I searched every material found in Korea National Library as well as in most principal public libraries in Korea. I also analyzed the aid of the academic and cultural foundations with the projects of translation in some publishers.
The following works of Middle Ages are translated now: El Cantar de Mio Cid, representive medieval epic of the 12th century; Libro de Buen Amor, written with typical tetrastick and El conde Lucanor, a collection of short stories; La Celestina, a transitional work from Middle Ages to Renaissance.
The Golden ages in Spanish Literature can be divided into two different periods: Renaissance of 16th century and Baroque of 17th century. The authors whose works are translated in Korean are as follows: Garcilaso de la Vega, a typical poet of Spanish Renaissance; San Juan de la Cruz and Santa Teresa, two representive writers of Mystic Literature; The anonymous Lazarrilo de Tormes, which created the original Picaresque Novel for the first time.
In addition to El Quijote, many Spanish plays of Baroque received the attention of Korean translators. For example, the dramatic works of Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Calderon de la Barca. Quevedo's poems and Baltasar Gracian's ethical writings also were at the center of concern in the Korean publishing world.
From the point of view of literary trend, the 18th and 19th centuries belong to Neo-Classism, Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism. In this period, some classic works also are translated in Korean: El si entre las niñas de Moratin, a neoclassical play, Don Juan Tenorio de Jose Zorrilla, a culminating play of Spanish Romanticism, some poems of Neo-Romanticism written by Becquer and the novels of Realism and Naturalism represented by Pedro Antonio de Alarcon, Juan Valera and Benito Perez Galdos.
The writers who maintained popularity at the beginning of the 20th century were not forgotten by Korean translators: Juan Ramon Jimenez, Ortega y Gasset and Ramon Gomez de la Serna. The core members of the Generation of 98 as like Pio Baroja and Miguel de Unamuno were two famous writers in Korea. Similarly the poets who belong to the Generation of 27 get a lot of attention in the publish world. After Spanish Civil War, some novelists played a leading role in Spanish Literature as like Miguel Delibes, Camilo Jose Cela. After the mentioned novelists, Luis Martin Santos and Juan Goytisolo attempt to explore new novelistic horizon using experimental narrative techniques. In eighties and nineties of 20th century other new novelists follows them as like Antonio Gala, Antonio Muñoz Molina and Almudena Grande. Of course, many novels of the above mentioned writers were translated in Korean. In the other hand, the Noughties can be designated as the boom of the translated Spanish Literature in Korea. Some leading Korean translators are eager to introduce Spanish novels to Korean readers. Arturo Perez-Reverte, Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Luis Sepulveda were their favorite novelists. Meanwhile, the Spanish dramatists and poets couldn't be so popular as the novelists because of various reasons.
At this moment, I would like point out the important non-literary factors which have contributed to the translation of Spanish Literature in Korea. Some academic and cultural foundations supported financially this activity of translation. Therefore, some valuable classics of Spanish Literature could be introduced to Korean readers. Apart from this support, the projects of publishers can't be omitted. Particularly, ‘Communication Books’ publisher initiated 'The Classic thousand lines' from which many Spanish works could be translated, though they were not full version of translation. Many other publishers also have contributed to the translation of Spanish Literature in their own projects as like 'complete series of world literature' in the publishers like Minumsa, Eulyoo, etc. The publisher ‘Book Spain’ is a very curious case. The CEO of this company, Jeong Chang, resercher of Hispanic Literature, in a interview, anounced a plan to translate and publish exclusively Spanish literary works. The other publishers like ‘So’l, ‘The Forest of Literature’ and ‘Cheong-H'a played a great role in publishing the famous Spanish poems in Korean.