Korean Literature
- Thread starter liehtzu
- Start date
sandracollin1985
New member
I do love Korean literature because you can understand it clearly, of course when some of it got translated you will definitely fall in love the moment you read them. Your Paradise is such a great piece that I will forever treasure. Honestly, today I love not only their literature but I am now interested in getting a short course of Korean literature and other aspects to more of them.
Ben Jackson
Well-known member
Korean Writers to read:
Han Kang and Hwang Sok-Yong and Kim Chi-Ha if time permits. So much writers to cover.
Han Kang and Hwang Sok-Yong and Kim Chi-Ha if time permits. So much writers to cover.
tiganeasca
Moderator
Okay, I'm late (by three years). It could be worse: I could have missed this completely. So, from the Asian Review of Books, for those who may be interested, I offer you:
2020: The Year in Translation from Korean
A round-up of reviews of fiction in translation from Korean, including two graphic novels, short stories and a rare novel from North Korea.
Moms, Yeong-shin Ma, Janet Hong (trans) (Drawn & Quarterly, August 2020)
Graphic novels, which less generous souls might call comic books, rarely feature middle-aged women and certainly not as the main characters. Not until, that is, Yeong-shin Ma wrote Moms, a graphic novel based on his mother and her friends. First published in Korea in 2015, it’s now available in an English translation by Janet Hong, whose name will be familiar to those in the know.
The Law of Lines, Hye-young Pyun, Sora Kim-Russell (trans) (Arcade, May 2020)
Hye-Young Pyun’s fourth novel, The Law of Lines, is a story of alienation and loss against the backdrop of a city intent on constant reinvention. Under the guise of a thriller, the novel gradually reveals the real crime—the way that capitalism has robbed people of their own humanity.
One Left: A Novel, Kim Soom, Bruce Fulton (trans), Ju-Chan Fulton (trans)
A Korean nonagenarian learns on the news that the last remaining “comfort woman” is on her deathbed. The narrator, unnamed until the end of the book, is determined to meet this last victim: she wants to know if she knew the woman from 70 years earlier. She also wants to assure her that she’s not in fact the last one left. The narrator has never told anyone about her past—not even her siblings and their children; it’s finally a chance to talk about it.Kim Soom’s One Left is, as surprising as it may seem given the enduring topicality of the subject matter, reportedly the first Korean novel published centered around the girls and women forced into sex slavery during World War II.
Bluebeard’s First Wife, Ha Seong-nan, Janet Hong (trans) (Open Letter, June 2020)
Tragedy finds its ideal form when a good character is partially responsible for her own downfall, which should unfold with the slow and inexorable force of a moral sentencing. Or so said Aristotle. Likewise, an irresistible blend of pity, horror, and satisfaction emerges through each of Ha Seong-nan’s short stories in this new collection.
Grass, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, Janet Hong (trans) (Drawn & Quarterly, August 2019)
Some years back, graphic novelist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim interviewed an elderly Korean woman named Lee Ok-sun. Gendry-Kim hoped to learn about social class and gender disparity during World War II and write a book about this subject. But after several interviews, Gendry-Kim realized Lee’s personal story warranted a book of its own. The result is Grass, a graphic novel now out in an English translation by Janet Hong.
The Disaster Tourist, Yun Ko-Eun, Lizzie Buehler (trans) (Counterpoint, August 2020; Serpent’s Tail, July 2020)
Tourism, especially package tourism, has long been an easy subject of satire. English-language readers may however be aware of an irony perhaps missing in the Korean original: those once considered an exotic destination and subject to some of the less than benign forms of international tourism are now themselves inflicting it upon others.
Seven Years of Darkness, Jeong You-jeong, Chi-Young Kim (trans) (Little, Brown, May 2020; Penguin, June 2020)
Jeong You-jeong’s Seven Years of Darkness opens in 2011 with young Choi Sowon living in Lighthouse Village, South Korea. The place is so remote GPS can’t locate it and so out of date that the president of its youth-club is sixty-one years old. Sowon resides off the grid on purpose. In the years since the horrible events referred to as the “Seryong Lake Disaster”, he has been shunted house to house, school to school. When people find out he’s the offspring of Choi Hyonsu, the man imprisoned for the disaster, he has to skip town. All his attempts to remain unknown are curiously foiled.
Friend: A Novel from North Korea, Paek Nam-nyong, Immanuel Kim (trans) (Columbia University Press, May 2020)
There must be a temptation to approach Paek Nam-nyong’s Friend, presumably the first “state-sanctioned” North Korean novel available in English, much as Samuel Johnson did “a dog’s walking on his hind legs: It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.” Skeptics will rapidly be disabused.
Untold Night and Day: A Novel, Bae Suah, Deborah Smith (trans) (Overlook Press, May 2020; Jonathan Cape, January 2020)
The somewhat overused adjective “Lynchian” has been used more than once by reviewers to describe Bae Suah’s writing, a reference to the American filmmaker David Lynch, who is celebrated for his nightmarish visions of reality, which one writer described as “being dropped into the middle of someone else’s dream.” Objects are often familiar or recognizable, but they are transformed into something strange and different, as if one were looking at a cinematic version of a Salvador Dali painting. Boundaries are blurred, different levels of “reality” are posited, and events unravel.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982: A Novel, Cho Nam-Joo, Jamie Chang (trans) (Liveright, April 2020; Scribner, February 2020)
When Cho Nam-Joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was published in South Korea several years ago, it took the country by storm, selling more than a million copies and becoming the most popular book in over a decade. Applauded by many women, those who do not support feminism have spoken out against it. Last year, the film version again caused controversy between those who want South Korean sexism to change and those who think the status quo is just fine. Now available in an English translation by Jamie Chang, English-language readers get a chance to understand this divide firsthand.
Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River, Jung Young Moon, Yewon Jung (trans) (Deep Vellum, December 2019)
There are many novels by Western authors sojourning in Asia. Stories that go the other way around are as rare as hens’ teeth. The unnamed narrator in Jung Young Moon’s newly translated novel explains that the novel is “written by someone who doesn’t know much about Texas because he doesn’t know about Texas…”. Jung is well-known in South Korea, especially for his quirky stories and characters. Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River is a perfect example of this.
2020: The Year in Translation from Korean
A round-up of reviews of fiction in translation from Korean, including two graphic novels, short stories and a rare novel from North Korea.
Moms, Yeong-shin Ma, Janet Hong (trans) (Drawn & Quarterly, August 2020)
Graphic novels, which less generous souls might call comic books, rarely feature middle-aged women and certainly not as the main characters. Not until, that is, Yeong-shin Ma wrote Moms, a graphic novel based on his mother and her friends. First published in Korea in 2015, it’s now available in an English translation by Janet Hong, whose name will be familiar to those in the know.
The Law of Lines, Hye-young Pyun, Sora Kim-Russell (trans) (Arcade, May 2020)
Hye-Young Pyun’s fourth novel, The Law of Lines, is a story of alienation and loss against the backdrop of a city intent on constant reinvention. Under the guise of a thriller, the novel gradually reveals the real crime—the way that capitalism has robbed people of their own humanity.
One Left: A Novel, Kim Soom, Bruce Fulton (trans), Ju-Chan Fulton (trans)
A Korean nonagenarian learns on the news that the last remaining “comfort woman” is on her deathbed. The narrator, unnamed until the end of the book, is determined to meet this last victim: she wants to know if she knew the woman from 70 years earlier. She also wants to assure her that she’s not in fact the last one left. The narrator has never told anyone about her past—not even her siblings and their children; it’s finally a chance to talk about it.Kim Soom’s One Left is, as surprising as it may seem given the enduring topicality of the subject matter, reportedly the first Korean novel published centered around the girls and women forced into sex slavery during World War II.
Bluebeard’s First Wife, Ha Seong-nan, Janet Hong (trans) (Open Letter, June 2020)
Tragedy finds its ideal form when a good character is partially responsible for her own downfall, which should unfold with the slow and inexorable force of a moral sentencing. Or so said Aristotle. Likewise, an irresistible blend of pity, horror, and satisfaction emerges through each of Ha Seong-nan’s short stories in this new collection.
Grass, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, Janet Hong (trans) (Drawn & Quarterly, August 2019)
Some years back, graphic novelist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim interviewed an elderly Korean woman named Lee Ok-sun. Gendry-Kim hoped to learn about social class and gender disparity during World War II and write a book about this subject. But after several interviews, Gendry-Kim realized Lee’s personal story warranted a book of its own. The result is Grass, a graphic novel now out in an English translation by Janet Hong.
The Disaster Tourist, Yun Ko-Eun, Lizzie Buehler (trans) (Counterpoint, August 2020; Serpent’s Tail, July 2020)
Tourism, especially package tourism, has long been an easy subject of satire. English-language readers may however be aware of an irony perhaps missing in the Korean original: those once considered an exotic destination and subject to some of the less than benign forms of international tourism are now themselves inflicting it upon others.
Seven Years of Darkness, Jeong You-jeong, Chi-Young Kim (trans) (Little, Brown, May 2020; Penguin, June 2020)
Jeong You-jeong’s Seven Years of Darkness opens in 2011 with young Choi Sowon living in Lighthouse Village, South Korea. The place is so remote GPS can’t locate it and so out of date that the president of its youth-club is sixty-one years old. Sowon resides off the grid on purpose. In the years since the horrible events referred to as the “Seryong Lake Disaster”, he has been shunted house to house, school to school. When people find out he’s the offspring of Choi Hyonsu, the man imprisoned for the disaster, he has to skip town. All his attempts to remain unknown are curiously foiled.
Friend: A Novel from North Korea, Paek Nam-nyong, Immanuel Kim (trans) (Columbia University Press, May 2020)
There must be a temptation to approach Paek Nam-nyong’s Friend, presumably the first “state-sanctioned” North Korean novel available in English, much as Samuel Johnson did “a dog’s walking on his hind legs: It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.” Skeptics will rapidly be disabused.
Untold Night and Day: A Novel, Bae Suah, Deborah Smith (trans) (Overlook Press, May 2020; Jonathan Cape, January 2020)
The somewhat overused adjective “Lynchian” has been used more than once by reviewers to describe Bae Suah’s writing, a reference to the American filmmaker David Lynch, who is celebrated for his nightmarish visions of reality, which one writer described as “being dropped into the middle of someone else’s dream.” Objects are often familiar or recognizable, but they are transformed into something strange and different, as if one were looking at a cinematic version of a Salvador Dali painting. Boundaries are blurred, different levels of “reality” are posited, and events unravel.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982: A Novel, Cho Nam-Joo, Jamie Chang (trans) (Liveright, April 2020; Scribner, February 2020)
When Cho Nam-Joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was published in South Korea several years ago, it took the country by storm, selling more than a million copies and becoming the most popular book in over a decade. Applauded by many women, those who do not support feminism have spoken out against it. Last year, the film version again caused controversy between those who want South Korean sexism to change and those who think the status quo is just fine. Now available in an English translation by Jamie Chang, English-language readers get a chance to understand this divide firsthand.
Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River, Jung Young Moon, Yewon Jung (trans) (Deep Vellum, December 2019)
There are many novels by Western authors sojourning in Asia. Stories that go the other way around are as rare as hens’ teeth. The unnamed narrator in Jung Young Moon’s newly translated novel explains that the novel is “written by someone who doesn’t know much about Texas because he doesn’t know about Texas…”. Jung is well-known in South Korea, especially for his quirky stories and characters. Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River is a perfect example of this.
tiganeasca
Moderator
Going back, I found the 2022 version (they seem to have skipped 2021 for some reason).
2022: The Year in Translation from Korean
A round-up of reviews of works in translation from Korean, including fiction, story collections, poetry and non-fiction. Click on the title for the review.
Fiction
Concerning My Daughter, by Kim Hye-jin, Jamie Chang (trans) (Restless Books, September 2022)
The narrator of Kim Hye-jin’s Concerning My Daughter believes that “some things aren’t spoken out loud.” As she ages, she doesn’t want to discuss the lack of facilities willing to care for the elderly. And as a mother, she doesn’t want to talk about her adult daughter, who doesn’t have stable employment and is involved in a long-term relationship with a woman. She keeps quiet, ignoring the messiness of reality and guarding these thoughts in her head.
Broken Summer by JM Lee, translated by An Seon Jae
On the morning of his 43rd birthday, celebrated artist Lee Hanjo wakes up hungover and alone. His loving devoted wife is gone, only leaving behind the draft of a novel. To Hanjo’s horror, the book tells the story of an artist in his early 40s and his affair with a possibly underage girl. This manuscript will ruin him, but his mind is drawn back to a summer years before when the death of another girl changed his life.
Saha, Cho Nam-Joo, Jamie Chang (trans) (WW Norton, Simon & Schuster, September 2022)
Set in a disturbing dystopia, Saha, Korean author Cho Nam-joo’s latest work following the wildly successful Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, tells the story of the bottom rung of a dark society. The story is set in a city-state only known as “Town” which 30 years previous had declared its independence after being purchased by a mysterious if not unfamiliar Chaebol-esque mega-corporation. The city has seen unprecedented economic growth and now claims to be the richest nation on earth. The Town is run by totally anonymous ministers whose draconian rule maintains a strict social order, though with the promise of constant progress and unmatched social stability.
The Old Woman With the Knife, Gu Byeong-mo, Chi-Young Kim (trans) ( Hanover Square, Cannongate, March 2022)
Gu Byeong-mo’s The Old Woman with the Knife is ostensibly a violent slasher novel about an aging assassin, known in the novel as a “Disease Controller” trying to end her storied career on her own terms. But wrapped in this visceral package, the book dives into the reality of an aging woman in a society apathetic to her plight, and indeed to her in general.
The Picture Bride, Lee Geum-yi, An Seonjae (trans) (Forge Books, October 2022)
Lee Geum-yi has published more than fifty books in her native South Korea, many of which have been adapted to film and stage, as well as into a number of languages. But it’s only now that one has been translated into English. That book is The Picture Bride, a story set mainly in a Korean enclave on Hawai’i in the 1910s. Lee’s stories often involve little-told pieces of history and The Picture Bride is no exception.
Korean Teachers, Seo Su-jin, Elizabeth Buehler (trans) (Harriett Press, March 2022)
Had it been set in an English-speaking country, Seo Su-Jin’s story about Korean language teachers in her home country of South Korea might be considered an addition to the campus novel genre. But in Korean Teachers, Seo’s debut novel translated into English by Elizabeth Buehler, education is portrayed as a service industry—with customer satisfaction as the main objective. While it may well resonate with certain segments of Western academia, it also echoes such other East Asian novels like Convenience Store Woman about everyday people going about their everyday lives.
The Age of Doubt, Pak Kyongni, multiple translators (Honford Star, September 2022)
One of Korea’s most renowned 20th century authors, Pak Kyongni often wrote stories set in the aftermath of the war and during the several military dictatorships. Pak passed away in 2008, but her work has been revived in English with a recent collection in translation, The Age of Doubt. These seven stories are all set in the 1950s and ’60s, a far cry from the glitz and glamor of modern-day Seoul. Each of the seven stories, furthermore, is translated by a different translator. While the stories differ, and not just in translator, a similar sense of darkness pervades all of them.
Poetry
The World’s Lightest Motorcycle by Yi Won, translated by EJ Koh and Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello
The contemporary Korean poet Yi Won (born 1968), is described by her translators as an “avant-garde modernist”, a poet interested in “freeing distinctions” often taking a feminist point of view. They explain that her poetry “is appreciated for its paradigm shifts about the information age and digital civilization,” which seems to suggest that in a digital world, anything and everything is possible.
2022: The Year in Translation from Korean
A round-up of reviews of works in translation from Korean, including fiction, story collections, poetry and non-fiction. Click on the title for the review.
Fiction
Concerning My Daughter, by Kim Hye-jin, Jamie Chang (trans) (Restless Books, September 2022)
The narrator of Kim Hye-jin’s Concerning My Daughter believes that “some things aren’t spoken out loud.” As she ages, she doesn’t want to discuss the lack of facilities willing to care for the elderly. And as a mother, she doesn’t want to talk about her adult daughter, who doesn’t have stable employment and is involved in a long-term relationship with a woman. She keeps quiet, ignoring the messiness of reality and guarding these thoughts in her head.
Broken Summer by JM Lee, translated by An Seon Jae
On the morning of his 43rd birthday, celebrated artist Lee Hanjo wakes up hungover and alone. His loving devoted wife is gone, only leaving behind the draft of a novel. To Hanjo’s horror, the book tells the story of an artist in his early 40s and his affair with a possibly underage girl. This manuscript will ruin him, but his mind is drawn back to a summer years before when the death of another girl changed his life.
Saha, Cho Nam-Joo, Jamie Chang (trans) (WW Norton, Simon & Schuster, September 2022)
Set in a disturbing dystopia, Saha, Korean author Cho Nam-joo’s latest work following the wildly successful Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, tells the story of the bottom rung of a dark society. The story is set in a city-state only known as “Town” which 30 years previous had declared its independence after being purchased by a mysterious if not unfamiliar Chaebol-esque mega-corporation. The city has seen unprecedented economic growth and now claims to be the richest nation on earth. The Town is run by totally anonymous ministers whose draconian rule maintains a strict social order, though with the promise of constant progress and unmatched social stability.
The Old Woman With the Knife, Gu Byeong-mo, Chi-Young Kim (trans) ( Hanover Square, Cannongate, March 2022)
Gu Byeong-mo’s The Old Woman with the Knife is ostensibly a violent slasher novel about an aging assassin, known in the novel as a “Disease Controller” trying to end her storied career on her own terms. But wrapped in this visceral package, the book dives into the reality of an aging woman in a society apathetic to her plight, and indeed to her in general.
The Picture Bride, Lee Geum-yi, An Seonjae (trans) (Forge Books, October 2022)
Lee Geum-yi has published more than fifty books in her native South Korea, many of which have been adapted to film and stage, as well as into a number of languages. But it’s only now that one has been translated into English. That book is The Picture Bride, a story set mainly in a Korean enclave on Hawai’i in the 1910s. Lee’s stories often involve little-told pieces of history and The Picture Bride is no exception.
Korean Teachers, Seo Su-jin, Elizabeth Buehler (trans) (Harriett Press, March 2022)
Had it been set in an English-speaking country, Seo Su-Jin’s story about Korean language teachers in her home country of South Korea might be considered an addition to the campus novel genre. But in Korean Teachers, Seo’s debut novel translated into English by Elizabeth Buehler, education is portrayed as a service industry—with customer satisfaction as the main objective. While it may well resonate with certain segments of Western academia, it also echoes such other East Asian novels like Convenience Store Woman about everyday people going about their everyday lives.
The Age of Doubt, Pak Kyongni, multiple translators (Honford Star, September 2022)
One of Korea’s most renowned 20th century authors, Pak Kyongni often wrote stories set in the aftermath of the war and during the several military dictatorships. Pak passed away in 2008, but her work has been revived in English with a recent collection in translation, The Age of Doubt. These seven stories are all set in the 1950s and ’60s, a far cry from the glitz and glamor of modern-day Seoul. Each of the seven stories, furthermore, is translated by a different translator. While the stories differ, and not just in translator, a similar sense of darkness pervades all of them.
Poetry
The World’s Lightest Motorcycle by Yi Won, translated by EJ Koh and Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello
The contemporary Korean poet Yi Won (born 1968), is described by her translators as an “avant-garde modernist”, a poet interested in “freeing distinctions” often taking a feminist point of view. They explain that her poetry “is appreciated for its paradigm shifts about the information age and digital civilization,” which seems to suggest that in a digital world, anything and everything is possible.