Re-contextualisation of the Italian Risorgimento in Korea in the Early Twentieth Century. The Example of Chae-Ho Shin’s Three Great Founders of Italy

From Firenze University Press Book: East and West Entangled (17th-21st Centuries)

Dong-Hyun Lim, Shinhan University

Italy was one of the earliest European countries to establish diplomatic relations with Korea. Nonetheless, it is hard to say that commercial and cultural exchanges between the two countries have been vigorous compared to those between Korea and other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France.1 Korea and Italy have not prioritised each other politically or economically. Given this situation, it is somewhat exceptional that the achievements of the protagonists of the Italian Risorgimento are widely known in Korea. Korean people’s knowledge of the Italian Risorgimento is undoubtedly due to Three Great Founders of Italy (Italykŏnkuksamkŏlchŏn),2 published by Korean independence activist and nationalist historian Chae-Ho Shin in 1907. T his was a Korean-Chinese mixed edition of The Makers of Modern Italy, written by John A. R. Marriott and published in London in 1889.

After the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905 made Korea a protectorate of imperialist Japan, the main proponents of the Korean enlightenment, including ChaeHo Shin himself, were dedicated to self-strengthening through Westernisation and mass education. Translation was a very effective tool for accepting Western science, technology, institutions and culture and for educating the public about Western civilisation. Owing to language difficulties, Korean intellectuals tended to translate from the Chinese or Japanese versions of Western works rather than from the original texts written in English, German, French and Italian. In many cases, translators modified texts according to their own intents and purposes. Chae-Ho Shin’s Three Great Founders of Italy was no exception. This article will investigate Chae-Ho Shin’s intentions and purposes, as shown in his T hree Great Founders of Italy, to reveal how he re-contextualised the history of the Italian Risorgimento. As with other East Asian translators, Chae-Ho Shin’s re-contextualisation was inextricably bound up with the historical setting of the political crisis that Korea faced after the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905.

DOI: 10.36253/979–12–215–0242–8.13

Read Full Text: https://books.fupress.it/chapter/re-contextualisation-of-the-italian-risorgimento-in-korea-in-the-early-twentieth-century-the-example/14121