Korean Literature- The Good, The Bad and The Weird.

The best place to begin experiencing Korean literature is probably 'The Portable Library of Korean Literature' series, a collection of short modern novels. As this review from the blog Korean Modern Literature in Translation points out, these books do tend to dwell on the miserable experience and aftermath of the Korean civil war. Other themes to the fore include family relationships, food, sickness and poverty. To be honest, this came as a quite a disappointment to me after the technicolour violence and hyper reality of modern Korean cinema. Reading about the minutae of everyday rituals and the petty frustrations of economic reality in Korea is educational, even necessary, but not always appealing. Even very recent works like 'A Photoshop Murder' by Kim Young-Ha were heavy on the soya bean soup and complex web of social obligations.

I particularly disliked the (apparently much esteemed) Yi Mun-Yol's 'An Appointment With My Brother'. A quick extract: '"Your brother is more than ten years your senior, so I think you should make a bow" Mr Kim said to my brother...It was a great relief to me and helped make my first words to my brother easier to bring out. I returned my brothers full bow with a half bow, and could use the plain form of speech without any hesitation or uneasiness'. Would it be culturally insensitive to suggest that this is awkwardly translated and makes the author sound like a pompous arse/stuck up ajjoshi? Most of the book continues in this vein. I kid you not.

Yi Sang's 'The Wings', on the other hand, was a revelation. A vivid description of mental dislocation and disintegration, it seems to stand completely apart from the other works I have read in the series and has encouraged me to look out for more translations of Korean novels. Yi Sang was heavily influenced by European writers, and and this may have made his work more accessible to me. Still, he is something of a national hero (having spent time in a Tokyo jail for 'Thought Offence') and most Koreans, young and old, will have studied his work in high school. See perhaps the only photo taken before his death in 1937, aged 27, below:



















Finally, a poem from the poet Ku Sang, from the 'English Translations of Korean Literature Series'. I am not a fan of his work, finding it laden with heavy handed (Xian) religious imagery and simplistic appropriations of Western culture.

You've just got to love this one, though:

Even the Knots on Quince Trees, part 3:

In Minor Seminary,
early one New Year's Day,
having cut out from the newspaper a picture
of Her Imperial Majesty all dressed in white,
I rushed straight to the toilets.

Having done like the serpent in Genesis
who, squirming his whole body, expelled
like pus a blasphemous passion,
I turned my back on that monastery
in which I had spent three years.

And I became a follower of isms.

ㅋㅋ