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Contents Preface vii 1900-1945 : The Rise of Modern Literature ?1 Two moderns: Yi Kwangsu and Kim Tong ?--Between enlightenment and art ?9 Elegies for a lost era: Kim Sow?l and Han Yong-un ?18 Social consciousness and the rise of realist fiction ?25 Colonial pastorals: rural sketches in time of oppression ?35 Modernization of poetic language and imagination ?44 1945-1970 : Liberation and the Korean War ?55 Abundance amid privation : the poetry of S? Ch?ngju ?58 Exploring nature and life: Yu Ch'ihwan and Pak Mog-w?l ? 64 Tradition and humanity: Kim Tongni and Hwang Sunw?n ? 71 Prose poetry and condensations of poetic language: ?Kim Su-y?ng and Kim Ch'unsu ?78 Currents in fiction: political life and existential life ?86 1970-1990 : Literature in an Industrializing Society 95 The shadows cast by industrialization 99 Continuing consequences of Korean division 106 The expression of social concerns in poetry 112 Women's voices 121 Explorations of existence and quests for new language 129 Expansions of fictional space 136 "The Era of Poetry" and deconstructions of language 143 1990-2000 : Literature in a Consumer Society 150 Strange cityscapes and the renewal of lyric 153 The self on shifting ground: fiction in a consumer society 163 Index of authors and works 172 Preface THE PURPOSE OF THIS LITTLE VOLUME is to offer readers some essential information and a basic framework for understanding twentieth- century Korean literature. The endeavor has been funded by the Korea Literature Translation Institute, as a part of their larger project of making Korean literature known to the world at large. The works of literature produced in Korea in the course of the twentieth century are only the latest products in a historical tradition that spans over two thousand years. However, as they have been shaped by that profound transformation of society which Korean scholars generally term "Modernization," the works of the twentieth century reveal essential differences from those of earlier times. It is partly in recognition of the significance of this break that Korean scholars often term the literature of the entire twentieth century "Modern Korean Literature." The twentieth century was not kind to Korea. Tumultuous historical changes, including long years of Japanese rule and a devastating war that left the country divided, revolutions and dictatorships, as well as the pangs of modernization and industrialization, brought great suffering to the Korean people. But it was also an era in which a strong determination to overcome the depredations of history were manifested in many areas of life. The decades of suffering gave birth to poets and writers of great vision, and to works of literature that testify both to actual Korean experience within this history and to the Korean spirit of resistance and transcendence that ever aspires to overcome oppression. It is literature, therefore, that offers the most concrete and the most abundant knowledge of the sensibilities and habits of thought, the moral values and aesthetic views that guided the lives of Koreans in the twentieth century. Anyone wishing to present a concise and systematic account of an entire century of a nation's literature risks the dangers both of oversimplifying the diversity of its inner movements and of excluding writers who made important contributions to its richness. This volume is not immune from these dangers. Complex literary phenomena have been simplified for the sake of comprehensibility; restrictions regarding length have led to the omission of a great many important writers, and their works, to say nothing of detailed descriptions of movements in literary criticism and all mention of the entire genre of the essay. The volume has been designed, above all, to provide a clear and accessible account of the main characteristics of Korean literature in the twentieth century. Accordingly, we have divided the century into four periods and introduced the major writers and works of each period in a separate chapter, each chapter being prefaced by an initial summary evoking the historical background to what follows. Rather than highlighting critical debates or dealing extensively with literary history, the study attempts to focus on the works themselves. Moreover, particular attention has been paid to contemporary Korean literature-- that written in the decades after 1970, and in particular, the poets and writers of the last decade of the century. It should also be noted that the volume does not contain any discussion of North Korean literature. Since North Korean literature has had a quite separate history since 1950 and possesses distinctive characteristics that require a thorough sociopolitical grounding to grasp, we have judged it to be a task better left for another time and place. This volume was originally written in Korean but is to be published in an English translation. It is our sincere hope that this small study will prove useful to readers across the world seeking an understanding of twentieth-century Korean literature and, more than that, will serve as a point of departure for further readings and deeper explorations. The Authors November 2001 </preface> <translator's note> Translator's Note ALL KOREAN NAMES IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES have been transcribed in accordance with the internationally recognized standard known as the McCune-Reischauer system. The names will be found in the final index in their hang?l forms and also romanized according to the Korean government's recently introduced new romanization system. This has been done to avoid confusion, since English translations of Korean literature published until now have more or less accurately followed the McCune-Reischauer system. Readers of this book will want to search catalogues and lists of publications to find translations of works by the writers who interest them. One source of particular confusion, no matter what system of romanization we follow, is the fact that the same common family name is romanized as "Yi" and "Lee" as well as (occasionally) "Rhee." We have decided to regularize the transcription as "Yi" in the text and in the Index. Library catalogues and databases will always need to be searched using both forms. Another problem facing the translators was how the titles of the works mentioned in the text should be represented. Ideally, the original Korean title should be romanized but since most readers of this book will not know any Korean at all, the translators have rather decided to translate the titles into English equivalents. Following accepted models, the titles of novels and volumes of poetry are printed in italics, while the titles of individual poems and short stories are enclosed in "inverted commas." Wherever possible, the English titles reproduce the forms used in published translations of the works in question. The translations of poems that appear in the text have mostly been selected from various publications; those poems which have no indication of a translator's name have been translated by the translator of this volume. In the Index, readers will find the original Korean title of each work of fiction that is discussed at any length, as well as of the poems quoted in translation. </translator's note>
Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication:
Korean literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism.