Changes in the translator’s position on the author and readers

Abstract

This study explores the evolving perspectives of a Korean feminist translator through a detailed analysis of translatorial peritexts in three editions of Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas. The first edition is a heavily edited translation tailored for uninitiated readers, featuring omissions of Woolf’s voluminous notes and additions such as chapter summaries and glossaries. The second edition includes a postface written as a letter to Woolf, where the translator critiques Woolf’s feminism and suggests postcolonial feminism as a better framework for Korean women. The final edition is a full translation with an introduction and notes from a renowned scholar, where the translator refrains from critiquing Woolf, focusing instead on expanding Woolf’s ideas and the scholar’s commentary. This study reveals various aspects of paratextuality, such as the variability of translatorial peritexts, tensions between authorial text and translatorial peritext, and the relation of the translator’s peritexts to their perceptions of the author and readers.