Translation With Abusive Fidelity: Methodological Issues in Translating Media Texts About Korean LPGA Players
in Sociology of Sport JournalClick name to view affiliation
In this paper, I use a case study of translation of Korean media golf narratives into English to widen academic discussions on sporting language translation. I employ poststructural and postcolonial theory to analyze historically mediated and translocally grounded Korean golf narratives while elucidating the power relations embedded in these narratives. In my analysis of Korean media representations of women golfers as they are translated into English, I reveal how colonial histories and cultural hierarchies are embedded in sport narratives. The study reveals discursive links between the local and global levels, where global sport is represented in distinct ways depending on local language use even as language moves local sport into a global/transnational context. Finally, this paper invites a rethinking of translation as part of data collection/treatment and data interpretation/analysis using an anticolonial, ethical, and rigorous methodological practice.
Kim is with the Dept. of Sociology, Boston College, Boston, MA.
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