Korean Literature: A Lecture Presented at the Korean Studies Workshop for American Educators 2008

Korean Literature:A Lecture Presented at the Korean Studies Workshop for American Educators 2008 John M. Frankl Underwood International College Yonsei University

The Beginnings of “Korea” and of Literature on the Peninsula • The Three Kingdoms Period: Defining “Korean,” Defining “Literature” • Samguk sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) 1145 • Samguk yusa (Remnants of the Three Kingdoms) 1285 • Lag and Imbedded-ness

Unified Shilla and Koryo Dynasty Literature • Time and Context Revisited • Samguk yusa • Koryosa (The History of Koryo) • Questions of Who Writes What—When and Why? • Literature as Artifact

Choson Dynasty Literature: The Beginnings of Stability • Overcoming Lag, Maintaining Embedded-ness • The Question of Language • Hunmin chongum (hangul) • Song of the Dragons Flying to Heaven • The Tale of Hong Kiltong • Works in Literary Chinese

The Major Forms • Poetry • Sijo • Kasa • Hansi • Prose • Vernacular • Literary Chinese

Sijo: An Example of Context • Jade Green Stream, don’t boast so proud of your easy passing through these blue hills. Once you have reached the broad sea to return again will be hard. While the Bright Moon fills these empty hills, why not pause? Then go on, if you will. Hwang Chin-i

Early Modern Literature: Between Transplantation and Continuity • Transplantation • Continuity • Hybridity and “Problematic Continuity”

The “Origins” of Modern Fiction • The “New” Novel • Origin of the Misnomer • Novelty versus Hybridity • The “Modern” Novel • The Milestone Approach • Overlap with the “New” • onmun ilch’i (genbun itchi) • Inverse Modernity

America and Japan in Early Modern Korean Fiction • Tears of Blood • The Heartless • Three Generations

1935-1945: The “Dark” Years • The Lacuna in Korean Literary History • The Roaring 30s • Everyday Life in the Empire • Writings in Korean, Writing in Korean • Total Mobilization • Censorship • Writing in Japanese

1945-1960s: Liberation, Division, and War • Kapitan Lee and Mister Pang • Questions of Loyalty • A Divided Country, Divided Families • Redefining “Korean-ness” • Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome • The Urge to Return (But to Where and What?) • Cranes • Redefining Right and Wrong • Possibilities for Reconciliation

Late-Twentieth Century Literature • Modernization and Its Discontents • Seoul, 1964, Winter • A Little Ball Launched by a Dwarf • Identical Apartments

Yoryu Chakga: The Changing Status of Women Writers • A Genre unto Themselves: Women Writers and Segregation • Turn of the Century: Women Writers as the Dominant Force in Korean Literature

Coming Full Circle: Rescuing Literature From the Nation • Nationalism in Literary Production • Nationalism in Literary Criticism • Writers Unbound • Kim Yongha • Revisiting Questions of Language and Ethnicity • Future Writers • Koreans in English • Others in Korean

Korean Literature: A Lecture Presented at the Korean Studies Workshop for American Educators 2008