Bruce Fulton

Bruce Fulton.

Bruce Fulton is a professor of Korean Literature and a noted translator of contemporary Korean fiction with an extensive list of publications. He has lived in Korea and Canada, and is married to translator Ju-Chan Fulton.

Life

Fulton received his BA in philosophy from Bowdoin College in 1970, his Masters Degree in Korea Regional Studies, from the University of Washington in 1983, and his Ph.D. in Modern Korean Literature from Seoul National University ^[1]

Fulton and his wife met at Seoul National University in 1978, while Fulton was volunteering in the Peace Corps. They married in 1979 and eventually realized that together they were "the ideal translation team": As Bruce was a native speaker of English who knew Korean, and Ju-Chan, was a native speaker of Korean who knew English.^[2]

Fulton is the inaugural holder of the Young-Bin Min Chair in Korean Literature and Literary Translation in the Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia.^[3] Fulton has also won several awards, including Korea's Daesan Foundation's translation prize.^[4]

Work

Fulton has translated novels, such as Cho Se-hui’s "The Dwarf," and collections including Land of Exile, The Red Room and Lost Souls: Stories by Hwang Sunwon. ^[5][6] Fulton's most recent translation is River of Fire and Other Stories by O Chonghui which contains nine stories, written from 1968 to 1994, describing family dysfunction, the decline of tradition, and lost love from a woman's perspective.^[7]

In this role as translator, Fulton is quick to note that he almost always works in partnership with his wife Ju-Chan Fulton.^[8]

As a Professor, Fulton works in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia where he teaches modern Korean literature, and researches modern Korean fiction and its translation.^[9]

Translations

• The Moving Castle, by Hwang Sun-wŏn (Seoul: Si-sa-yong-o-sa, 1985)
• Words of Farewell: Stories by Korean Women Writers (Seattle: Seal Press, 1989)
• Land of Exile: Contemporary Korean Fiction (trans. with Marshall R. Pihl). Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1993.
• Wayfarer: New Fiction by Korean Women. Seattle: Women in Translation, 1997.
• A Ready-Made Life: Early Masters of Modern Korean Fiction (trans. With Kim Chong-un) (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998)
• Deep Blue Night, by Ch’oe In-ho (Seoul: Jimoondang,2002)
• My Innocent Uncle, by Ch’ae Manshik (trans. with Kim Chong-un and Robert Armstrong), ed. Bruce Fulton and Ross King. Seoul: Jimoondang, 2003.
• The Last of Hanak’o, by Ch’oe Yun (Seoul: Jimoondang,2003)
• Chinatown, by O Chŏng-hŭi (Seoul: Jimoondang, 2003)
• A Man, by Hwang Sun-wŏn (Seoul: Jimoondang, 2003)
• Trees on a Slope, by Hwang Sun-wôn (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005)
• Human Decency by Kong Chi-yŏng (trans. with Kim Miza and Suzanne Crowder Han). Seoul: Jimoondang, 2006.
• The Dwarf, by Cho Se-hŭi (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006)
• Land of Exile: Contemporary Korean Fiction, exp. ed. (trans. with Marshall R. Pihl). Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2007.
• There a Petal Silently Falls: Three Stories by Ch’oe Yun. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
• The Red Room: Stories of Trauma in Contemporary Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2009.
• Lost Souls: Stories by Hwang Sunwŏn. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
• Mother, a play by Chang Chŏng-il, Korea Journal, October 1989, pp. 56–62
• "Crows," by Yi T'ae-jun, in Reunion So Far Away: A Collection of Contemporary Korean Fiction (Seoul: Korean National Commission for Unesco, 1994), pp. 5–21

References

Biography

Audio interview with Bruce Fulton (transcript included)