Tears of Blood (혈의 누) Korea’s First Modern Novel

Previously:
I) Hyangga and Koryeo Kasa
II) Sijo & Kasa
III) Classical Fiction
IV) Pansori
V) Introduction to Modern Literature

By the 19th century the Joseon Dynasty was collapsing into intrigue and impotence while to the south the Japanese empire was in ascendancy. At the same time, in the late 1800s, western influences including literature began to seep into Korean culture and affect Korean intellectuals including writers. At the same time, China, at one time perceived as the exemplar civilization, was now falling into disrepute as intellectuals attempted to reconstruct Korea as an independent nation. This lead to, among other things, a repudiation of Chinese as a language.

Against this backdrop Korea began its first foray into modern literature during the so-called enlightenment (kaehwa kyemmong) era. The enlightenment period was a bit confused, and certainly brief as it was halted by Japanese colonialism, which had its own social and literary goals that would soon come to dominate all aspects of Korean cultural existence. The period is most interesting in that it is proof that Korea was trying to work out a path to literary modernization, and that it gave some tantalizing hints as to where that modernization might have gone.

The shift in literature was substantially a result of two specific social movements, the New Education (sirhak) and Korean Language and Literature Movement. In 1884 the Kabo Reforms introduced a new western style of education. At the same time publishing/information technology was changing as the ‘new media’ of newspapers was becoming increasingly important.The first newspaper published in Korea was the Hansong Sunbo (1883) and the government also published, initially in Chinese but eventually in Hangul, the Pak Mun-guk, the mission of which was to proliferate new ideas. 1896 the short-lived The Independent (Tognip sinmun, 1896-1899) was published entirely in Hangul, then shut down due to government interference and in quick succession more newspapers followed including  the Capital Gazette  (Hwangsông sinmun, 1898-1910), the Korea Daily News  (Taehan maeil sinbo, 1904-1910), and the Cheguk Sinmun. The vast majority of these newspapers populated some of their pages with serialized novels, as well a sijo and kasa. Concurrent with this, the development of modern printing techniques made mercantile publishing possible.
These developments allowed the possibility of the professional author, as opposed to the troubador, scholar, or didact of the classical era. Authors including Ch’oe Chan-shik created a new form of literature call the shinsosol (new novel), and readers flocked to read these works.

Thematically, these works focused on issues of popular control, the importance of education (which, although different in suggested content and approach, still coincided well with established Confucian doctrines and social norms), attacks on arranged marriage, and attacks on the evil of “old” beliefs, including superstition. Subjects tended to be contemporary with a descriptive and analytical style which diverged from the narrative and chronological style of classical literature. A kind of moral didacticism still pervaded these works, with evil punished and good rewarded, and characters still tended to be archetypes and not individuals. Happy endings also tended to predominate. These works dealt with large problems in daily contexts and thus drew readership while at the same time creating a second generation of authors

One of these writers was Yi In-jik who, in 1906 had his work Hyol ui nu (Tears of Blood – please see sidebar) serialized in The Independence News. Following Yi In-jik came Yi Kwang-su,who would come to be considered the father of Korean modern literature, although also incredibly controversial as the colonial period stretched on.  Yi Kwangsu advocated for shockingly modern, particularly shocking in Korea, beliefs including a scientific approach and the introduction of romantic love. We will return to this author when we discuss the colonial period.

In any case, as the path was blazed, the path was followed and the shinsosol, which it should be noted were uniformly written in Hangul, continued to become more popular across this period. While they were strongly didactic – always espousing Enlightenment ideals – they broke with the abstractly contemplative and  highly artificial novels of the classical period. The novels included new narrative techniques (‘out of time’ narratives) and more prosaic voices.

Biographical works were also popular, although their focus changed to suit the tastes of the enlightenment audience, meaning calls to the emerging national consciousness and strong appeals to patriotism. Tale of the Patriotic Lady (Chang Ji-yon, 1907) was perhaps the most representative work of this genre.

The influence of the West was often strained through China and Japan, but more and more it became direct. In 1895 Yu Kiljun, the first Korean to study in both the US and Japan (Kiim Hyunggu, 32), published his Things Seen and Heard on a Journey to the West (Seoyu kyeonmun). In 1895, John Scarth Gale, a translator of impressive religious output, translated (WorldCat) John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress (Cholloyokjong). Gale was also emblematic, as he translated many religious works, of the process by which Christianity was introduced into Korea. From 1895 on, Gale was busy producing translations of parts of the bible, and in 1910 a complete text of the Bible was finally translated and published in Korea.

This conversation brings us to the cusp between the Enlightenment and Colonial Periods, and it is time to move on to the latter.