This book contains 175 tales drawn equally from the ancient and modern periods of Korea, plus 16 further tales provided for comparative purposes. Nothing else on this scale or depth is available in any western language. Three broad classes of material are included: foundation myths of ancient states and clans, ancient folktales and legends, modern … [Read More]
Booklist: Literature Fiction and Poetry (page 59)
Unspoken Voices: Selected Short Stories by Korean Women Writers
The stories in this collection are written by twelve Korean women writers whose experience, insight, and writing skill make them truly representative of Korean fiction at its best. “The Rooster” is a comical revelation of an old man who accepts the truth that Man and Nature revolve around the same immutable natural law. In “The … [Read More]
Early Korean Literature: Selections and Introductions
From the publisher’s website: Preeminent scholar and translator David R. McCann presents an anthology of his own translations of works ranging across the major genres and authors of Korean writing—stories, legends, poems, historical vignettes, and other works—and a set of critical essays on major themes. A brief history of traditional Korean literature orients the reader … [Read More]
Ten Thousand Sorrows
I don’t know how old I was when I watched my mother’s murder, nor do I know how old I am today.’ The illegitimate daughter of a peasant and an American GI, Elizabeth Kim spent her early years as a social outcast in her village in the Korean countryside. Ostracized by their family and neighbours, … [Read More]
Black Flower in the Sky: Poems of a Korean Bridegroom in Hiroshima
Chong, one of South Korea’s most famous poets, has received all the major literary awards of his country. Take two newly-wed Koreans surprised by war, carried off, one as a comfort woman, one as a factory slave. Let them find each other in Hiroshima just before the bomb drops. Let the man devote himself to … [Read More]
The Record of the Black Dragon Year
From the publisher’s website: The Imjin nok, or Record of the Black Dragon Year, is the first popular tale inspired by the Japanese invasion of Korea between 1592 and 1598. As a collection of folk narratives clustered around major events and characters, it exists in some forty manuscript and printed versions, long and short, in … [Read More]
The Prophet and Other Stories
From the publisher’s website: Yi Ch’ong-Jun was born in 1939 and graduated from the department of German language and literature at Seoul National University in 1966. He has long been recognized as one of Korea’s most prolific and demanding authors. Since his debut in 1965, he has enjoyed consistent critical and commercial success. His characters … [Read More]
A Gesture Life
Franklin Hata, Korean by birth but raised in Japan, is an outsider in American society, but he embodies the values of the town he calls his own – he is polite and keeps himself to himself. Franklin deflects everyone with courtesy and impenetrable decorum, and becomes a respected elder of his small, prosperous American town. … [Read More]
The Metacultural Theater of Oh T’ae-Sok: Five Plays from the Korean Avant-garde
From the publisher’s website: Here for the first time are translations of five plays by Oh T’ae-sok, Korea’s leading playwright and one of the most original dramatists and stage-directors working in Asia today. Drawing inspiration from both East and West and combining styles as disparate as ancient Korean masked dance-drama and contemporary avant-garde theater, these … [Read More]
Looking for the Cow: Modern Korean Poetry
This anthology of seventy-two poets covers the whole spectrum of Korean poetry in this century, with larger selections from the best-known poets, including Midang So Chung-Ju, Kim Sowol, and Kim Suyong. Many types of poetry, from the classical shijo to free-verse forms are represented. Many subjects are covered, from love and the love of nature, … [Read More]
First Kyu
From the details at Amazon: How far would you go to be first? “BEFORE WE BEGIN… Let me tell you a story. An old story, a really old story. Do you know how to play Go? You do? First kyu, a player of the first rank? Really? Have you ever competed in a professional qualifying … [Read More]
Farmers’ Dance
From the publisher’s website: Shin Kyong-Nim’s first volume of poems, Farmers’ Dance (Nong-mu), marked a major new step in the development of modern Korean poetry when it was published in 1973. The life of Korea’s oppressed rural masses had never before been highlighted in such a manner. For years, the poet had shared that life … [Read More]
A Ready-Made Life: Early Masters of Modern Korean Fiction
A Ready Made Life is the first volume of early modern Korean fiction to appear in English in the U.S. Written between 1921 and 1943, the sixteen stories are an excellent introduction to the riches of modern Korean fiction. They reveal a variety of settings, voices, styles, and thematic concerns, and the best of them, … [Read More]
The Golden Phoenix
A collection of seven short stories providing a picture of Korean family life in the 1940s to the 1990s. Their themes include family and community ties, respect for tradition, survival in the face of repeated national disasters, and wrenching social upheaval. The collection contains the following stories: Ch’oe Yun: The Flower with Thirteen Fragrances Kim … [Read More]
The Snow Falling on Chagall’s Village
From the publisher’s website: Kim Ch’un-Su is one of the most original poets in modern Korean poetry. He was influenced by Rilke for a while, but embarked on a series of his own poetic experiments culminating in what he calls “the poetry of meaning.” An avowed purist, he would not believe in ideas, ideologies, or … [Read More]
The Bamboo Grove: An Introduction to Sijo
From the publisher’s website: Series: Ann Arbor Paperbacks The sijo is the most popular and most Korean of all traditional Korean poetic forms, originating with the old songs of the Hyangka of the Sylla Empire (668-936) and the prose songs of the Koryo Dynasty (918-1392). Sometimes likened to haiku for its brevity, a typical sijo poem follows … [Read More]