ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

The raison d’être of literary translation cannot be separated from its obligation to faithfulness. In contexts where public funding supports translation, omissions are rigorously scrutinized for potentially undermining fidelity. Yet omissions often reflect more than error or negligence, requiring attention to their productive effects rather than to what has been removed. In the acclaimed English translation of the Korean crime novel The Good Son (2018, Penguin), notable omissions in the protagonist’s paranoid monologues about murdering his mother heighten the emphasis on the crime’s physical brutality. These omissions operate in two contexts: first, the genre of crime fiction privileges rapid pacing and narrative immersion, making repetition or embellishment susceptible to omission; second, crime fiction’s lower status within literary hierarchy allows for greater tolerance of deletion or alteration. Thus, omission functions as a strategic device to accelerate plot, intensify fear, and heighten engagement, reflecting genre conventions rather than strict fidelity to the source.

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