MODERN KOREAN LITERATURE

PREPARED BY: MA. RACHEL C. DUNCIL

BEGINNING OF MODERN KOREAN LITERATURE

Formed against the background of the crumbling political society of the Choson Dynasty.

The importation of new ideas from the West.

The new political reality of rising Japanese imperial power in East Asia.

ENLIGHTENMENT PERIOD(kaehwa kyemong)

The change from traditional to modern literature was largely due to the effects of the New Education and the Korean Language and Literature movement.

• Tongnip Shinmun (The Independent)

• Hwangsong Shinmun (The Imperial City Newspaper)

• Taehan maeil Shinbo (Korean Daily News)

• Cheguk Shinmun (Imperial Newspaper)

• Mansebo (The Forever Report)

• Taehan minbo (The Korean People's Report)

NEWLY EMERGED MEDIA

• Ch'angga (new type of song)

• Shinch'eshi (new poetry)

• Chayushi (free verse poem)

• Hae egeso sonyon ege (From the Sea to the Youth, 1908).

• Kkot tugo (Laying Down the Flowers

• T'aebaeksan shi (Poems of Mt. T'aebaeksan)

NEW POETIC FORMS

Aeguk puinjon (Tale of the Patriotic Lady) Chang Ji-yon, 1907)

Elchi Mundok (Shin Ch'ae-ho, 1908)

Kuk-son's Kumsu hoeuirok (Notes From the Meeting of the Birds and Beasts) (1908)

BIOGRAPICAL WORKS

A new literary form called the shinsosol (new novel) secured a popular readership base.

• Yi In-jik's Hyoluinu (Tears of Blood) (1906)

• Ensegye (The Silver World) (1908)

• Yi Hae-cho's Kumagom (The Demon-Ousting Sword)

• Chayujong (The Freedom Bell)

• Ch'oe Ch'an-shik's Ch'uwolsaek (The Color of the Autumn Moon) (1912)

SHINSOSOL BASED LITERARY WORKS

JAPANESE COLONIAL PERIOD 1910-1945

• Ch'angjo (Creation) (1919)

• P'yeho (The Ruins) (1920)

• Paekcho (White Tide) (1922)

• Kaebyok (The Opening) (1920)

• Dong-A Ilbo and the Chosun Ilbo

EMERGENCE OF MAGAZINES

In the early 1920s, the base support for Korea's modern literature began to expand as people experienced a renewed self-awakening and recognition of their national predicaments in the wake of the March 1919 uprising.

• Yi Kwang-su's short story Sonyonui piae (The Sorrow of Youth)

• Mujong (Heartlessness) (1917)

• Paettaragi (Following the Boat) (1921)

• Kamja (Potatoes) (1925)

• Hyon Chin-gon's Unsu choun nal (The Lucky Day) (1924)

• Yom Sang-sop's P'yobonshilui ch'nonggaeguri (Green Frog in the Specimen Gallery, 1921)

• Mansejon (The Tale of Forever) (1924)

JAPANESE COLONIAL LITERARY WORKS

• Chu Yo-han's Pullori (Fireworks) (1919)

• Kim So-wol's poetry collection Chindallae kkot (Azaleas) (1925)

• Yi Sang-hwa (Madonna)

• Ppaeatkin Turedo pomun onun-ga (Does Spring Come to Those Who Have Been Plundered?)

• Han Yong-un, Nimui ch'immuk (Thy Silence) (1926)

FRENCH TECHNIQUE (vers libre)

Literature of the Period of National Division

The Korean War(1950-1953) was a tragic interim which solidified Korea's division into South and North. Postwar Korean society's emergence from the wounds and chaos of that war had a considerable impact on the development of Korean literature.

• An Su-kil, Pukkando (1959)

• Oh Sang-won's Moban (Revolt) (1957)

• Son Ch'ang-sop's Injo in-gan (Artificial Man) (1958).

• Pak Kyong-ri's Pulshin shidae (The Age of Mistrust) (1957)

• Chong Kwang-yong's Kkoppittan Li (Captain Lee) (1962)

• Yi Bom-son's Obalt'an (A Bullet Misfired)

• Yi Ho-ch'iol's Nasang (The Nude Portrait) (1957)

• Ch'oe Sang-gyu's P'oint'du (Point) (1956)

NATIONAL DIVISION LIT. WORKS

The Translation of Korean Literature in Foreign Languages

Korean literature was largely unknown to the world until the 1980s, when translations of Korean literary works began to appear in foreign countries. Since then, the types of works selected for translation have become increasingly diverse, and the quality of the translations themselves have improved steadily.

• Flowers of Fire (Peter H. Lee, University of Hawaii Press, 1974)

• Land of Exile (Marshall R. Pihl and Bruce Fulton, New York: M.E.Sharpe, 1993)

• Hwang's novel Umjiginun song (The Moving Castle) translated in the United States by Bruce Fulton.

• Elhwa (Eulhwa, The Shaman Sorceress), Munyodo (The Portrait of the Shaman) have been translated and published.

• Yi Mun-yol's Uridurui ilgurojin yongung (Notre Heros Defigure) and Shiin (Le Poete)

• Cho Se-hui's Nanjang-iga ssoa ollin chagun kong (La petite Balle Lancee par un Nain)

TRANSLATED KOREAN LITERATURE