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This study examines the roots of modern Korean fiction and its origin in the Japanese colonial period. These essays highlight the intimate connection between modernity and colonialism and provide a wide-ranging investigation into how the language and literature of Korean society was constructed.
List of contents
Preface, Kim Chul
Note on Romanization
Foreword, Theodore Jun Yoo
Chapter 1: Yo-dokari Tablet: The "Modernity" of Korean Language
Chapter 2: "Oily touches on a canvas, stroking and scattering the pigments": Train Travel and Korean Fiction
Chapter 3: "N¿ ¿?? y¿gi wan?" What Brings you here?": Korean Fiction and the Standard Language
Chapter 4: "The law is not afraid of yangban, is it?": Korean Fiction and Modern Law
Chapter 5: "To talk it over in English": Korean Fiction and English
Chapter 6: "Love is blind": Korean Fiction and Eroticism
Chapter 7: "I wish to marry a mainland damsel": Korean Fiction and the "Mainland-Chos¿n Marriage"
Chapter 8: "She who returned like a return postcard": Korean Fiction and the Postal System
Chapter 9: Coffee, Purande, Love Candy, and Nanjji: Culinary Lifestyle and Colonial Modernity
Chapter 10: "The agitators are ¿ing me": The Birth of Korean Language
Chapter 11: "Is there any power greater than gold?": Gold and Korean Fiction
Chapter 12: The Colonial Ventriloquists: Chos¿n Writers Writing in Japanese
Chapter 13: "When they've all been stripped naked, no part was good for beating": Korean Fiction and the August 15 Liberation
Afterword, Theodore Hughes
About the author
Kim Chul is professor emeritus of Korean language and literature at Yonsei University.
Summary
This study examines the roots of modern Korean fiction and its origin in the Japanese colonial period. These essays highlight the intimate connection between modernity and colonialism and provide a wide-ranging investigation into how the language and literature of Korean society was constructed.
