Korean Short Fiction From the Liberation Period by Joel R. Stevenson

An interesting PDF discussing the brief period between the end of WWII and before the civil war. The abstract says, in part:

Themes include: the return of Koreans from overseas, whether from exile, forced labor, or conscription, and the loss of home that awaited them; collaboration; “self-criticism”; the hopes of a bright new future contrasted with the realization that nothing was going to change; and land reform and the plight of peasants.

Which sounds a lot like the themes of the years to follow, but the actual paper is a bit more interesting than that, since, among other things, Stevenson has included his own translations of the works he discusses, “Fire” (Pul, 1946) by An Hoenam; “Milestones” (Tojong, 1946) by Chi Hayon; “Constable Maeng” (Maeng sunsa, 1946) by Ch’ae Mansik; and “Before and After Liberation” (Haebang chonhu, 1946) by Yi T’aejun.

150 pages, so it’s a load. To download it, look towards the bottom of the page to find the link to the PDF.