Publisher description: The volume provides the first detailed and authoritative overview of Korean cinema history, and in so doing develops new historical and critical understandings of Korean cinema from the period of Japanese colonial rule to the present day, with two very different cinematic traditions in this divided peninsula. The contributed chapters approach the subject … [Read More]
Booklist: Formats and Genres
From Eternity to Eternity: Memoirs of a Korean Buddhist Nun [forthcoming]
From Eternity to Eternity is the story of Bulpil Sunim, arguably the most respected female Seon (Zen) master in Korea. Written with candor and an unpretentious sense of humor, her memoir provides both a fascinating record of her life and a deeply accessible window into Buddhist thought and spirituality. Describing and reflecting on her own experience … [Read More]
The Bloomsbury Handbook of North Korean Cinema [forthcoming]
This first handbook on North Korean cinema contests the assumption that North Korean film is “unwatchable,” in terms of both quality and accessibility, refusing to reduce North Korean cinema to political propaganda and focusing on its aesthetic forms and cultural meanings. Since its founding in 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) has … [Read More]
I Decided to Live as Me [forthcoming]
The million-copy Korean bestseller read by BTS’s Jungkook on Bon Voyage, the hit reality TV show following K-pop sensation BTS! Don’t be kind to those who aren’t kind to you. Remember that no one lives a perfect life. Don’t be swayed by what others say. Don’t try too hard to get along with everyone. As soon as … [Read More]
To the Kennels, and other stories [forthcoming]
An acclaimed story collection from the author of the Shirley Jackson Award–winning novel The Hole Six elephants bolt from an amusement park and vanish; where they’re found brings back memories of a forgotten dictator. A car ride on a foggy highway at night becomes a drive through hell for a young couple getting away for the … [Read More]
Koryŏsa: The History of Koryŏ, the Annals of the Kings, 918–1095
Among all the Korean dynasties, the Koryŏ dynasty (918-1392) was the first to have contact with the Western world. It was from these interactions that the current appellation of “Korea” was derived from the Koryŏ name. The Koryŏsa, or the History of Koryŏ, is one of the most significant historical texts on the Koryŏ Dynasty of the Korean … [Read More]
Buddhism, Digital Technology and New Media in Korea: Ŭisang’s Ocean Seal Diagram
Buddhism, Digital Technology and New Media in Korea introduces Ŭisang (625-702), a seminal figure in East Asian religion who founded the Korean Hwaŏm school of Buddhism from various angles and placing his thought in the interdisciplinary and transcultural context of the twenty-first century. The book presents and analyses the scope of Ŭisang’s teachings in Korean … [Read More]
The South Korean Film Industry
As shown by the success of Squid Game and Parasite, South Korea’s film industry is producing films and original series for streaming services, film studios, and television stations worldwide. South Korea is now arguably considered one of the few countries outside the United States to have captivated the world’s hearts and minds through pop music, TV dramas, and … [Read More]
Everything Good Dies Here: Tales from the Linker Universe and Beyond
Introducing English readers to the speculative fiction of pseudonymous author Djuna, whose writings and interventions into internet culture have attracted a cult following in South Korea The stories brought together in this collection introduce for the first time in English the dazzling speculative imaginings of Djuna, one of South Korea’s most provocative SF writers. Whether … [Read More]
Comfort Women of the Japanese Empire: Colonial Rule and the Battle over Memory
This is an important and controversial book, hitherto available only in Korean, Japanese and Chinese, a book which has been subject to court cases attempting to have some parts of the book deleted. The author reconsiders the issue of the “comfort women”, that is the Korean women who were compelled to provide sexual comfort to … [Read More]
Song of Arirang: The Story of a Korean Rebel Revolutionary in China
Song of Arirang tells the true story of Korean revolutionary Kim San (Jang Jirak), who left colonized Korea as a teenager to fight against Japanese imperialism and fought alongside Mao’s Red Army during the Chinese Revolution. First published in 1941, this remarkably intimate memoir (as told to the American journalist Nym Wales aka Helen Foster … [Read More]
I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki
The sequel to the Sunday Times and international-bestselling South Korean therapy memoir, translated by International Booker Prize–shortlisted Anton Hur When Baek Sehee started recording her sessions with her psychiatrist, her hope was to create a reference for herself. She never imagined she would reach so many people, especially young people, with her reflections. I Want to Die but I … [Read More]
Wafers
This 2006 collection of short stories is in line with the unsettling, engrossing style of Ha’s other two collections that have been translated into English, the critical and commercial successes Flowers of Mold and Bluebeard’s First Wife. A best-seller in Korea, Ha Seong-nan is one of the stars of contemporary short fiction, writing edgy, socially conscious stories that … [Read More]
Mediating Gender in Post-Authoritarian South Korea
Mediating Gender in Post-Authoritarian South Korea focuses on the relationship between media representation and gender politics in South Korea. Its chapters feature notable voices of South Korea’s burgeoning sphere of gender critique enabled by social media, doing what no other academic volume has yet accomplished in the sphere of Anglophone studies on this topic. Seeking … [Read More]
Poems and Stories for Overcoming Idleness: P’ahan chip by Yi Illo
Poems and Stories for Overcoming Idleness is the first complete translation in any Western language of P’ahan chip, the earliest Korean work of sihwa (C. shihua; “remarks on poetry”) and one of the oldest extant Korean sources. The collection was written and compiled by Yi Illo (1152–1220) during the mid-Koryǒ dynasty (918–1392). P’ahan chip features poetry composed in Literary Chinese (the scriptura franca of the … [Read More]
Passcode to the Third Floor: An Insider’s Account of Life Among North Korea’s Political Elite
Thae Yong-ho was a leading North Korean diplomat to the United Kingdom and Northern Europe—until his dramatic defection to South Korea in 2016. In this gripping tell-all, he reveals the inner workings of the North Korean regime and shares the story of his decision to leave. Thae spent nearly three decades working under three generations … [Read More]