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.
NEWLY EMERGED MEDIA
• Tongnip Shinmun
(The Independent)
• Cheguk Shinmun
(Imperial Newspaper)
• Hwangsong Shinmun
(The Imperial City
Newspaper)
• Mansebo (The
Forever Report)
• Taehan maeil Shinbo
(Korean Daily News)
• Taehan minbo (The
Korean People's
Report)
NEW POETIC FORMS
• Ch'angga (new type of • Hae egeso sonyon
song)
ege (From the Sea to
the Youth, 1908).
• Shinch'eshi (new
poetry)
• Kkot tugo (Laying
Down the Flowers
• Chayushi (free verse
poem)
• T'aebaeksan shi
(Poems of Mt.
T'aebaeksan)
BIOGRAPICAL WORKS
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)
A new literary form called
the shinsosol (new novel)
secured a popular
readership base.
SHINSOSOL BASED LITERARY WORKS
• 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)
JAPANESE COLONIAL PERIOD
1910-1945
EMERGENCE OF MAGAZINES
• Ch'angjo (Creation) (1919)
• P'yeho (The Ruins) (1920)
• Paekcho (White Tide) (1922)
• Kaebyok (The Opening) (1920)
• Dong-A Ilbo and the Chosun Ilbo
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.
JAPANESE COLONIAL LITERARY WORKS
•
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)
FRENCH TECHNIQUE (vers libre)
• 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)
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.
NATIONAL DIVISION LIT. WORKS
• 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)
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.
TRANSLATED KOREAN LITERATURE
• 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)