The Curious Tale of Mandogi’s Ghost By Kim Sok-Pom Translated by Cindi L. Textor (1970, translated 2010) Columbia University Press Kim Sok-Pom is a second generation Zainichi writer. Elsewhere in this collection, I have grouped Zainichi writers as a subset within Japanese literature. Zainichi are ethnic Koreans who chose to move to Japan or were taken to Japan as laborers during the priod of Japanese imperialism. Zainichi writers typically explore their complicated identity as a minority culture existing within or in spite of the Japanese, their social order, and their legal system. Kim, howe ..read more

The Naked Tree By Park Wan-suh Translated by Yu Youngnan (1970, translated 2011) Cornell East Asia The Naked Tree was Park Wan-suh’s first novel, published in 1970. The story is set in Seoul in 1951. Lee Kyong is twenty, going on twenty-one. She lives alone with her mother in a once beautiful traditional Korean home. She works in a small stall in the American PX, where she acts as a salesperson tasked with persuading G.I.s to have photographs of their wives or girlfriends painted onto silk scarves. She manages the four painters who work in the back room. Mis. Lee, or Kyong-a, spends her days t ..read more

The House with a Sunken Courtyard By Kim Won-il Translated by Suh Ji-Moon Dalkey Archive Press House with a Sunken Courtyard is set in the aftermath of the Korean War. Kim Won-il wrote this reflection in the 1980s as South Korea was preparing for the Olympics and protesters of pro-democracy movements were in the streets. But the nation was not only looking to the future. Each night, viewers across the peninsula were watching televised attempts to help families separated during the war find and reunite with lost relatives. Perhaps this national effort to recall the past inspired Kim to revisit ..read more

Mujong (The Heartless) By Yi Kwang-su Translated by Ann Sung-hi Lee Cornell East Asia Series (1917, trans. 2011) Like Lee Hyoseok, author of Endless Blue Skies, Yi Kwang-su is writing about “the people who wear white,” young Koreans in the early 20th century who are trying to find their way in a world where old social structures are breaking down. Characters in both novels idealize Western industrialization, education, art, and thinking. They view their native land as dangerously behind in all areas and imagine the birth of a modern Korea that will one day be able to stand as equals among the ..read more

Encounter, A Novel of 19th Century Korea By Hahn Moo-suk Translated by OK Yung Kim Chang (1986, Trans. 1992) University of California Press In 1942, Hahn was a housewife in her forties when she submitted her first piece of literature, A Woman With a Lantern, and won a major literary prize. She continued to enjoy great popularity as a playwright and novelist. At a time when most writers were producing dark, nihilistic writing in reaction to the unique chaos and horror experienced by Koreans in the 20th century, Hahn produced works that celebrated life and extolled the power of faith and hope. E ..read more

The Age of Doubt By Pak Kyong-ni Translated by Sophie Bowman, et al  (1955-1968, translated 2022) Honford Star Short Story Collection The stories featured in Pak Kyong-ni’s The Age of Doubt are “Calculations” (1955), “Black is Black, White is White” (1956), “The Age of Darkness” (1958), “The Age of Doubt” (1957), “Retreat” (1957), “The Era of Fantasy” (1966), “The Sickness No Medicine Can Fix” (1968). Pak is one of the first to write about the post-war period from the point of view of a woman. She was a prolific writer, producing over thirty short stories and twenty-five novels, and a mul ..read more

The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness By Shin Kyung-sook Translated by Jung Ha-yun (1995, translated 2015) Pegasus Books Shin Kyung-sook is the author of Please Look After Mom (2008, translated 2012 ) I’ll Be Right There (2010, translated 2013 ), reviewed in this project, as well as a series of South Korean YA novels. I’ll be Right There is a quasi-autobiographical work of fiction about a group of college friends who come of age in the 80s and 90s in South Korea. The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness is more directly an autobiographical piece. The central conceit is that the narrator, a writer who has achieve ..read more

From Wonso Pond By Kang Kyong-Ae Translated by Samuel Perry The Feminist Press 1934, translated 2009 From Wonso Pond is remarkable for any number of reasons. It is the first work of a Korean woman writing in the 1930s to be published in English. The settings of the novel are also significant, as the first half of the novel takes place in the South Hwangwae Province in what is now North Korea. This is also the first province to be visited by Protestant missionaries. The novel also portrays shocking class conflicts as the result of exploitative landlords in the country or greed-driven factory ow ..read more

Endless Blue Skies By Lee Hyoseok Translated by Steven D. Capener (1940-1941, translated 2018) Honford Star Lee Hyoseok wrote the progressive romance Endless Blue Skies and published it in installments in the Maeli Times from January of 1940 to July of 1941. The central character is Cheon Ilma, a handsome, reserved intellectual, who, unlike his college friends, has been making ends meet here and there but has not found steady work in a rewarding career. As the story begins, he is heading off to Manchuria bearing an invitation from the Hyundai News to a western-trained orchestra to perform in S ..read more

Straight Lines and Poison Gas, At the Hospital Wards By Lim Chul-woo Translated by  1981, translated 2013 ASIA Publishers Bilingual Edition Modern Korean Literature  Lim Chul-woo is an artist who has devoted his life to writing about the horrors of the 1980 Gwangju Massacre. Korea was in a state of great upheaval; the authoritarian Park Chung-hee was assassinated in May of 1979, and Chun Doo-hwan, the Chief of the Defense Security Command lead a successful military coup in December. On May 15th of 1980, some 100,000 Pro-Democracy university students rallied at Seoul Station, calling ..read more