Translating Doramas Without Drama: A Practical Guide for Audiovisual Translators

More than 200 localized series, collaboration with leading online cinemas and TV channels—Elena Ivanova’s professional path speaks for itself. In this book, she explains how to translate dramas, what pitfalls the translator encounters, and why knowledge of the Korean context is necessary for everyone who truly wants to understand this genre.

Elena Ivanova is an experienced audiovisual translator, a преподаватель (teacher) at the School of Audiovisual Translation, and the creator of the course “Translating Dramas.” Her portfolio includes more than 200 translated series, as well as typical mistakes by colleagues collected in practice and techniques that help avoid them. Her translations are available on the largest online cinemas and on the TV channels “Doramat” and “Kineko.” Using well-known projects—“The Demon,” “Moonlight Drawn by Clouds,” “Tale of the Nine Tailed,” and others—as examples, the author shows what complexities arise when working with South Korean series and how they can be solved.

In the book you will learn:
— What dramas are, where the name comes from, and what makes them popular.
— How many genres exist and how they differ.
— Whether translators really fear dramas—and why.
— Why a translator needs to understand Korea’s historical and contemporary realities, and how the dramas themselves can become a guide to the country.
— Are Victor Tsoi and Mr. Choi connected?
— Interesting facts and centuries-old traditions related to personal names in South Korea. The book also includes a table for rendering Korean names and place names from Latin script into Cyrillic.