This study is an analysis on the phenomenon which works Korean readers accepted among the various works of Japanese literature and why they preferred such works. The preliminary aim of this study is to understand, through analysis and interpretation o ...
This study is an analysis on the phenomenon which works Korean readers accepted among the various works of Japanese literature and why they preferred such works. The preliminary aim of this study is to understand, through analysis and interpretation of the materials, the reality of the translations of Japanese literary works and Korean society from the liberation from Japanese colonial rule up to now, and figure out the actual influence that such translated works of Japanese literature has made on Korean society.
This two-year-long study is divided largely into two parts. For the first year, this study made an analysis by era, which divided the period of 65 years by unit of 10 years and illustrated syntactically the characteristic of acceptance of Japanese literature for each epoch. For the second year, this study analyzed, through the characteristic of each individual works focussing on best-selling and steady-selling books, the demands of the times as well as the issues such as perception, preference and tastes of Korean readers who accepted Japanese literature.
The year 2010 was the point that exactly one century has passed by since the date of the national humiliation when the Japan-Korea annexation treaty was entered into. During this period of 100 years, a lot of different level of cultures have crossed the Korea Strait. Among them, 'literature' has been interacting more steadily and heavily than any other sector. In spite of the weight that Japanese literature has in Korean reader industry, there has been no systematic discussion for the correct assessment on Japanese literature such as by whom and how Japanese literature was introduced to Korea. This symbolic time that we have to look back past 100 years and predict next 100 years in order to seek for a blueprint of advancement is the very moment that we have to check and evaluate the translated works of Japanese literature.
Even against any change in Korean politics or economic development, the translated works of Japanese literature are involved somehow in any form. As the individual level of consciousness and living environment is changing, the taste of accepting 'something to read' also becomes diversified. For example, as the cultural demand in the epoch of the Revitalizing Reforms and the culture that was born during the period of pro-democracy movement in 1980s are different each other, 'something to read' as 'literature' which took a large portion of then life at that time used to change its appearance upon the appearance of new generation. In case of created works, it might be felt slow to take a not-so-short process from appearance of one generation until the next generation replaces them, another appearance of the next generation, but translated works have a strength that they are faster than created works and cope with the demand of new generation more easily, rapidly, variously and delicately. Furthermore, some translated works that are ahead of the time triggered the establishment of new era sometimes. Especially, since the translated works of Japanese literature were corresponding to the cultural code rather than ideological code, it became possible to look into the periodical trend of satisfying cultural behavior and intellectual curiosity of Korean society through selective attitude for accepting the translated works. Since the situation of Korea should be revealed first in order to figure out the aspect of Korean readers who accept Japanese literature, the aspect of accepting translated Japanese literature could be a tool to verify the cultural-historic transition process of Korean society since the liberalization.
The work of illustrating the history of translated works was also a work to find out the position and role of Japanese literature in Korea and the difference between accepting other foreign literature and Japanese literature, beyond just figuring out the stream of Japanese literature.