Life of Writer Yi Kwang-su: From Nationalist to Collaborator – UPDATE

Popular Gusts

Last week I posted a short piece linking to an article on Yi Kwang-su and his arc from Nationalist to Japanese Collaborator. Now, Matt from over at Popular Gusts has done an epic piece talking about Yi and how he fits into the larger picture of ethnic nationalism in Korea.

Matt begins with

Last week Andre Lankov wrote an interesting piece in the Korea Times about the life of Yi Kwangsu, which got me interested in him, not because of his novels or literary criticism, but more because I’d been reading Gi-wook Shin’s Ethnic Nationalism in Korea, which discusses his influence on Korean nationalism. The way the Korean nation is perceived today has been influenced especially by two people: Shin Chae-ho and Yi Kwangsu.

And takes it from there. It’s an epic read, and I had to cut and paste it from the website to read it more easily (Gusts uses that white on black thing that is so difficult to read)