LTI Korea triumph – Early Modern Korean Fiction Classics for Free!

LTILogoLTI Korea, fresh off successes with its Dalkey Publications Books and the the conclusion of the first stage of its Wikipedia Project, is now pushing Korean translated literature into the e-sphere. Yesterday twenty stories from Korea’s early modern period became available for free as PDFs. And… oh, yeah.. there’s an app if you want to use that!

But first.. Go Here and see the splendor. 20 works by authors who are not only famous in Korea, but make sense to non-Koreans, and are translated by some of today’s cutting-edge translators. Not a point to belabor at this moment, but it is clear some new translators are emerging and doing awesome work.

These are some of the key works and artists of early-modern Korean literature (Yi – freaking – Sang!!). The breadth and width of this collection is going to reduce me to a bullet list. But a regular reader of this blog will notice that the authors and translators are all quite famous for the quality of their work and so, this is, in a word, awesome! Just the Chae Man-shik pieces alone, with what he has already published, could represent a short course in Japanese colonialism and responses to it.

In the technical jargon of literary criticism?

This collection rocks.

  • Broken Strings by Gang Gyeong-ae, Translated by Sora Kim-Russell
  • Lashing by Kim Dong-in (yeah, the one with the award named after him). tTranslated by Stephen Epstein and Kim Mi Young
  • Tale of a Mad Painter by Kim Dong-in, translated by Stephen Epstein and Kim Mi Young
  • The Golden Bean Patch by Kim Yu-jeong (the awesome author of Camellias). Translated by Eugene Larsen-Hallock
  • The Heat of the Sun (not quite as good, or emotionally accurate a title as “The Scorching Heat”, which is previously published) by Kim Yu-jeong. Translated  by Eugene Larsen-Hallock.
  • Home by Hyun Jin-geon  Translated by Sora Kim-Russell.
  • Poor Man’s Wife (different from the story of the same title by Eun Hee-Kyung) by Hyun Jin-geon. Translated by Sora Kim-Russell.
  • After Beating Your Wife (immediate winner for most problematic title) by Kim Nam-cheon. Translated by Jenny Wang Medina.
  • Management by Kim Nam-cheon. Translated by Jenny Wang Medina.
  • Into the Light by Kim Sa-ryang. Translated by by Jane Kim.
  • The Water Mill by Na Do-hyang. Translated by by Jane Kim.
  • Poverty by Baek Sin-ae. Translated by Janet Hong/
  • Gwasil by Yi Gwang-su, Translated by Peter Lee.
  • Child’s Bone by Yi Sang (yeah, him!). Translated by Janet Hong.
  • The Farmers by Jo Myeong-hui. Translated by Peter Lee.
  • Frozen Fish by Chae Manshik (a great satirist, among other things). Translated by by Myles Ji.
  • Transgressor of the Nation by Chae Manshik. Translated by by Jane Kim.
  • Harbin by Yi Hyo-seok. Translated by Ally Hwang.
  • Bunnyeo by Yi Hyo-seok. Translated by Ally Hwang.

* Download the app for iPhone/iPad:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/20th-century-korean-literature/id767386934?mt=8

* Don’t have any Apple devices? It’s fine, you can still read the books in pdf format on your PC and mobile:http://ebook.klti.or.kr/ebooks/m/20century.jsp

This is beyond awesome if you want to get a background in early-modern Korean literature, which largely set the table for what was to follow.

Go check it out.

FREE

INTERCULTURAL

EDUCATION

awesome…