희곡 『M.나비』 속 권력의 전복과 한국어 번역

This study analyzes the Korean translation of David Henry Hwang’s play, M. Butterfly, focusing on the characters’ honorific speeches, particularly on their use of Korean hearer-oriented honorific system. It is because one of the most important massages the original text carries is subversion of power in Orientalism and gender ideology, and its exposure through the relationship between the characters. Whereas in English, politeness or relative honorification is intermittently revealed in dialogue, in Korean language, the hearer-oriented honorific system is grammatically contained in every sentence. Therefore, it is very essential for translators of English dramas to complete Korean sentences with relevant hearer-oriented honorifics in order to show relationships between characters and to convey playwrights’ intended messages and effects to readers and audience. By analyzing the Korean hearer-oriented honorifics in the Korean translated text, this study examines how the Korean translation represents the power relations between the main characters in M. Butterfly and what effects it can bring to the Korean readers and audience.