The purpose of this study is to comparatively analyze the covers between the English-translated Korean literary works and their original Korean versions in order to confirm the conspicuous characteristics of the covers while also investigating what diachronic aspects are observed on the covers of English-translated Korean literary works. Finally, this study attempts to investigate the implications suggested on the covers of English-translated Korean literary works, and thus discuss them from the perspective of translation. The researcher sampled 297 Korean literary works published in Anglo-American society between 2001 and September 2022 for this purpose, and thus discussed the covers of English-translated Korean literary works from the standpoint of social semiotics.
The term "social semiotics" was coined by British linguist Michael Halliday, who advocated for systemic functional linguistics. His social semiotics provides a methodology for analyzing the multimodal characteristics implied by the book covers. The framework for the study of book covers is the visual grammar of social semiotics. Theo van Leeuwen and Gunther Kress, two well-known social semiotic scholars, use the visual grammar as a framework for visual image analysis. To discuss the regularity of various visual signs, it draws on the metafunctions of systematic functional linguistics. The metafunctions of the visual grammar include compositional, interactional, and representational metafunctions. The researcher used each metafunction of the visual grammar to thoroughly analyze the book cover's visual texts, including participants (people, things, and places), color, and typography, as well as verbal texts such as the title, subtitle, author's name, translator's name, advertising copy, etc.
As a result, the following diachronic features of translated Korean literary works published in Anglo-American society could be confirmed. First, the identity of Korean literature is gradually diminished on the covers, while the covers are designed to be as familiar to Anglo-American readers as local literature book covers. Second, the covers of English-translated Korean literary works initially appeared to be distant from Anglo-American readers, but they gradually close the gap and form an intimate relationship with them. Furthermore, the covers of English-translated Korean literary works would conform to the feelings of Anglo-American readers, reinforcing the characteristics of their literary genres. Third, the covers of English-translated Korean literary works initially represented one of the Korean literatures but changed only to reinforce the value of the individual works and their commercial values.
The visual grammar of social semiotics was used in this study to analyze both the original versions and the English translations of Korean literary works from a diatonic perspective. The results of this study are helpful not only for translators but also for researchers studying social semiotics and Korean literature. Due to the fact that it dealt with both verbal and visual texts, it would also be important as multimodality research. Since the status of Korean literature has been elevated more than in the past, and the number of Korean literary works published overseas has been rapidly increasing, it is hoped that this study will serve as a small stepping stone to revisit the covers of translated Korean literary works, providing a useful guide to anticipate the future of Korean literature in the global community. Furthermore, it is hope that this study will contribute to a better understanding of visual texts and related discussions within translation studies.