Korean Pansori as an adaptation of the Western Masterpieces an Cultural Translation

Abstract

This paper intends to study the Pansori creation of the Western masterpieces, which may be called as one stream of the Korean performing arts. It has closely observed the trend of transfiguration that is realized when the Western canons created through “choice and exclusion” are translated into and performed by the Korean Pansori creators, based on the cultural translation theory. In the process of translating the Western canon into Korean Pansori, the translators had to depict political consciousness at some point, inevitably. Due to this, a decentering of the Western canon was achieved, and the cultural translation theory was very effective for further discussion. This paper shows that the cultural translation activities of these creators have realized the cosmopolitanism with a lower layer's cultural sensitivity, that opens a door to communicate and understand among people from different nationalities and background.