| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, March 5, 2009 | 12:00PM - 3:00PM | Seminar Room 208N, Munk Centre For International Studies 1 Devonshire Place |
James Scarth Gale (1863-1937) was one of the earliest Westerners to reside in Korea for any length of time. Although he is known to history mainly for his missionary activity in Korea, he did pioneering work in the fields of Korean language, linguistics, and literature. The significance of his accomplishments in these areas is clear already from his published works, which include the mother of all Korean-to-English dictionaries, his Korean Grammatical Forms, and his translations of Chunhyang chon and Kuunmong. While Gale is not unknown or unappreciated as a scholar and translator of Korean literature, he seems to be remembered (and praised) primarily for his translation of Kuunmong, published in 1922. However, our research at the University of British Columbia has uncovered an astounding wealth of translations, both from the hanmun and from vernacular Korean, and both in prose and poetry. It is the purpose of this panel to situate several of these various translations within the still sparse body of traditional Korean literature in English translation, to analyze the works of literature themselves, and to evaluate Gales translations of them. To these ends Ross King discusses Gales translations of prose works written in classical Chinese, Leif Olsen analyzes two of the dozen or so Choson vernacular fictional narratives translated by Gale, and Si Nae Park treats Gales translation of part of an important nineteenth-century yadam collection.
Presenters:
James Scarth Gales Translations from Korean Hanmun Sources
Ross King, Professor of Korean, University of British Columbia
Canadian James Scarth Gales Translations of Choson-Period Fiction
Leif Olsen, Ph.D. Student, University of British Columbia
Gale’s Translations from the 19th c. yadam collection, _Kimun ch’onghwa_
Si Nae Park, Ph.D. Student in Premodern Korean Literature University of British Columbia
Discussant
Bruce Fulton,Associate Professor
Young-Bin Min Chair in Korean Literature and Literary Translation University of British Columbia
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