I have to disagree with Sun Kyoung Yoon's analysis of feminism and translation. While I understand the idea that expecting a work to maintain fidelity is similar to expecting a woman to maintain fidelity to a man, I do not think that this applies in the case that the original author already wrote a feminist work, and is a feminist woman herself. Fidelity to a source text is not a means of control, but a means of honoring that source text and its original tone and content. In fact I think it is somewhat arrogant to take liberties with the translation and go off script when translating, because that takes away fro the original intent and the message that the author is trying to get across, as if saying "I know how to convey these ideas better than the author who originally proposed them." If we are not careful, we risk projecting our own beliefs onto a story that did not have them in the first place, because we are taking liberties that are not ours to take.
This being said, I have read The Vegetarian, and in fact I wrote my thesis on this novel last semester. I read the work in translation, and I quite liked it, and I enjoyed the feminist perspective that the novel provided. I had previously heard of these critiques of the translation, but for my paper, I was not focusing on those points. I think that, while the translation was good, and I appreciated the aspects of feminism included, it does not excuse the translator from taking liberties, and including things that should not have been there. Like one of the articles mentioned, the main character's sister expressed some anti-feminist rhetoric that the translator left out of her translation. While this decision made way for the sisters to have a more meaningful and supportive relationship, this changes the direction of the source text, and in fact changes some of the arguments I made in my paper about this work. Changing a source text changes the outcome, changes the way people perceive the work and the conclusions they form about it. I agree, that a direct one for one translation from Korean to English would not work, and in fact would lend itself to an almost illegible story. However, there is a very major difference between making something palatable and enjoyable in a translation, and taking extreme amounts of creative liberty. There are ways that Korean translations into English can be both faithful to the source text and enjoyable and engaging in English.
I also agree with the articles that stated the tone was a little variable at times, with some things standing out as odd, or ringing the wrong way when reading. While I liked the translation and the novel itself, I do think it does a disservice to readers (and certainly did a disservice to one of the points in my thesis) to stray so far from the source material.
I appreciated Deborah's own thoughts on the matter, and I agree with her, that translation is not just mastery of a language, but a continual learning process, and I can sympathize with the fact that this was her first translation, and she was not well developed in her Korean skills yet. However, I would say to that point that perhaps she should have started smaller, or waited until she was further along to attempt such a large and thematically bold work. I would have suggested she start with small essays or short stories, to get a feel for how to translate first, as I have experienced first hand. I appreciate that she accepts her criticism and is both proud, and yet humble, about her work. I think this is a good attitude to have when translating, and this was probably a great learning experience for her.
In addition, Han Kang's own opinion about the work is not to be taken lightly, and if she likes the translation, then that is what really matters, even if the translator took many liberties. Critics talking over Han Kang's own voice turns them into exactly what they critiqued Smith of being: arrogant.
Ultimately, this argument is very nuanced, and I think there are positives and negatives of taking liberties when translating a work, especially one with such important, heavy, and relevant themes. The work impacted me in translation, and I liked evaluating it and discussing the nuances of the feminism present in the work within my thesis. However, the changes Smith made did ultimately change some of the characters and ideas within the work, and so one cannot be sure that the translation accurately represents all the points Han originally intended for her Korean novel.
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