Found on the Web #33: Korean literature classes; Translation winners; Narcoleptic Korean author^^

KTLIT LogoThings discovered while hopping around the web.

• First, an online class offered by Portland State University in Korean Literature (by Christopher Hanscom, UCLA). It’s awesome to see that this kind of course being offered, even if the course description is full of a little too much literary theory palaver^^:

Border Crossings in Modern Korean Fiction
This course offers an introduction to modern Korean literature in English translation, focusing on both form and content in works of short fiction and novels that reflect tradition and modernity; colonialism and imperialism; the construction of national identity, class, and gender; the Korean War and national division; industrialization and socio-economic change; and diaspora. This term will focus especially on aspects of border crossing that include not only geographic or political borders but also the boundaries between language and its object, self and other, social classes, and gender. What might this crossing of borders mean for the stability of Korean national identity? How can fiction that exceeds received categories change our perspective on modern Korea?

The reading list (with the exception of Mujong, which is painful to read, but also necessary) is pretty good as well:

And if you click on the titles, all but that last book have been reviewed here on KTLIT!^^

• Also, the announcement of the winners of the Korea Times 44th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards (nope, I recognise none of the names^^ though some of the story titles sound quite interesting.):

The Grand Prize winner, receiving 5 million won, is Agnel Joseph for his translation of Chung Chan’s “A Report to an Academy.” Winners of the 1.5 million won commendation awards in fiction are Andrew James Keast and Chang Chung-hwa for their translation of Park Seong-won’s “By Motor-Home to Ulan Bator,” and Andrew Krebsbach for his translation of Son Bo-mi’s “Downpour.”

• Finally, an amusing and ultimately touching story of a Vietnamese author in Korea, assigned a narcoleptic Korean author as his conference host.