Korean Literature in Translation – CHAPTER TWO: Influences / Overview / Themes

Chapters 1 / 2 / 3 / 4/ Korea has a long-standing literary tradition and literature has always occupied a position of high cultural importance. Korea for instance, is number one per capita internationally in poetry publications per person . Korea’s history is thoroughly represented in its literature, and its literature is often centered on arguments or representations about…

Here we go again: 160 books nominated for international award? Zero are Korean

I first noticed this at the indispensible Literary Saloon in a  post titled  International Dublin Literary Award nominations ( Hat tip to the inevitable^^ M.A.Orthofer). The article mentions an award given annually by the Dublin City Council. The list of nominated books has come out, and for those of us who love translated lKorean fiction the results are not…

Review: “Our Happy Time” by Gong Ji-young (공지영)

If you don’t like a stacked deck, you may not like Gong Ji-Young’s Our Happy Time. While Gong does write a cracking tale, she piles freighted detail upon freighted detail, and horrible history upon horrible history, to ensure that the reader has no emotional wiggle-room with her characters. With that said, it’s a compelling read…

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Hot on Korea.net, “People About to Party like it’s 1999!” – “discovers” Park Wan-suh’s “A Sketch of the Fading Sun.”

Coming up next at Korea.net, “People Begin to Party like it’s 1999!” LOL… sometimes you just have to wonder what is going on in the minds of Koreans who like translated Modern Korean literature, or Korean literature in English. On June 24, 2014, Korea.net breathlessly reports, in an article titled Korean novels in English: ‘A Sketch of The Fading…