Previously: I) Hyangga and Koryeo Kasa II) Sijo & Kasa III) Classical Fiction IV) Pansori V) Introduction to Modern Literature VI: Enlightenment The colonial period, which on a larger social level was completely impacted by Japanese colonialization that in fact amounted to invasion and conquest), featured two main literary approaches. One approach, which was partly…
Everyone in Seoul is invited to attend (well, until the room limit of 40 people is reached!). The 10 Magazine Folks explain what it will be in these words: Please join the 10 Magazine Book Club for our second March meeting on Sunday 31st. We will be joined by very special guest Charles Montgomery. Charles…
An exchange of emails today reveals that Kim Young-ha is back in Korea (Busan) and all over the internet. Following are three semi-related pieces of Kim Young-ha news. • As I think most of us now know, Kim Young-ha became only the second Korean writer to ever be nominated for the Man Asia Literary Prize.…
Regular readers will recall my fulminating about works that have been re-translated and re-translated and one of the examples I frequently use in lecture is Hwang Sun-won’s (an excellent writer in translation, in general) Sonagi. However, as I’m sorting through an appallingly large set of abstracts to edit, I come across this (Attentive readers will…
Patrick Lauchang, not only took third place in the contest, but was hands-down winner on how to present an essay^^ and has a really great academic writing style. He also lives in Korea, so I hope to come across him one of these traveling days. Here is his essay titled, …
Now is the time to trot out the winners of the KTLIT-Catch The Wave (Arirang) Essay Contest, beginning with Bronze Medal and working our way up to Gold. The bronze medal winner for non-native English goes to Yew Pei Juan. Pei Juan’s essay came in at the very last minute, but I liked it. Anyone…
After over a month of accepting entries, it is now time to publicly announce the winner in the KTLIT – Catch The Wave Early Spring, Mid-Summer (remember, a book that cost over $300 at the time the contest started and now ranges from $214 t0 $348 on Amazon) essay contest. We received over 20 essays…
First things first.^^ Over at the excellent London Korean Links you can find Philip’s review of Yi Mun-yol’s Our Twisted Hero.It’s a book I really loved, but Philip has a different view saying, in part: Our Twisted Hero is rather a chore to read, though it is interesting for its balanced assessment of the rights…
So, here’s the problem… Somebody goes to check out a piece of Korean literature on Amazon and they’re not sure what they want to do. They need a bit of convincing (or unconvincing!) so they look around the page to try to figure the book out. They look for a couple of things: a good…
Early Spring, Midsummer, may be the best book out of the Si-sa-yongo-sa Modern Korean Short Stories 10 book series. It contains couple of meditations on change, particularly Early Spring, Mid-Summer by Yi Munyol, a couple of historical/metaphorical tales of the cost of war, including Kim Won-il’s The Spirit of Darkness, and a couple of stories…