As I continue to frantically research Korean Literature in expectation of my lecture at the 10 Magazine Book Club on March 31 (which anyone in Seoul can attend, so hit me up if you have questions about it), I have received two new books that will certainly help my understanding. Got one from the awesome folks at What The Book on order, and then, putzing about in the store while I was picking the first book up I discovered, sitting in the racks.

KOREAN LITERATURE: IN CULTURAL CONTEXT AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE  (and, yeah, sorry, the title is all caps.. so…).

And it is mind-boggling. Awesome. Peculiar. Definitely mind-boggling.  Published in 1997 it is an epic testament to the kind of critical monocularity that Korean critics can have.

It begins with something that reads like a declaration of distance from non-Korean literature, or against the threat of a non-Korean literature (particularly in Korea):

Korean literature is created by Korean writers, for a Korean audience, in Korean language. The Korea race has not been intermixed with other races and has distinctive national characteristics. Therefore, there is not problem (sic) in determining whether the writer of the audience is Korean. Because there is only one language, the language of the nation and the race.

The brass testicularity of that claim is only slightly dented by reality, including the historical fact of Mongol, Japanese and Chinese invasions and the fact that the author immediately goes on to detail the impact of Chinese language, including hyanggchal, on Korean literature.

But still.. such racial certainty is bracing and in my home country can only be found in compounds in Idaho and in some backwood areas in the Southern United States.

It gets better as the author fearlessly declares:

Korea is a major country without the problem of minority race or minority language.

LOL. Awesome in its way.

Then I realize I married a “problem.”^^

I happily admit that once the book gets past it’s spastic nationalism, it contains an invaluable analysis of the literature.

But, oh my.^^