A nice piece this morning over in the Korea Times titled Korean literature expanding global reach which tracks the initial successes of Korean literature overseas, the redoubtable Hwang Sun-won and Kim Young-ha, through the continued success of translations in many languages including French, Lithuanian, Japan and English (mysteriously, the article shows most of the books in Korean publications, not foreign language, but what are you gonna do?^^).

The article glosses a wide variety of authors including Kim Ae-ran, Han Mu-suk, Han Kang, and a firmament of other writers.

Encouragingly the article ends with the recognition that part of the previous failure to extend the literature overseas was due to poor choices in what to push (although the word “bias” seems to used in an amusingly solipsisitic Korean way):

Literary critics argued that work by Korean authors first made inroads into French and Japanese bookstores but this failed to succeed commercially because overseas readers associated the literature with the Korean War (1950-53) or other historical issues. To counter bias, a concerted effort has been made to advertize young and aspiring authors who write about contemporary life, causing a shift in perception, albeit gradual.

Vive le shift!^^