I gave a craft talk about translating Korean queer feminist icon Ibanjiha’s writing!
- Hosted by Accent Sisters
- Date: June 29th 8PM EDT
- About the event:
- In 2024, Hoyoung Moon began translating 나는 왜 이렇게 웃긴가 (Why Am I So Hilarious?, 2023), a book of essays by Korean genderqueer icon Ibanjiha. In this collection, the multi-disciplinary artist known for their propulsive swagger and disarming humor muses on the precarity of life as a queer artist and their travels to North America. As Hoyoung worked on recreating Ibanjiha’s voice in English, they encountered a few unique and universal translation conundrums: How do you translate a punchline? What about terms specific to Korean queerness? And most importantly, how do you make a translation more gay? In this talk, author Ibanjiha and translator Hoyoung discuss their writing and translation process, queer slang in Korean and English, and how to use humor to play with boundaries.
