Korean Fiction Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4/ 5 / In 1877 King Gojong and Queen Min sent a group of Koreans to Japan to examine its technological and social changes. What they found amazed them, as while Korea had once considered itself the modern hub of Asia, Japan had modernized far beyond Korean expectations or experience. While Queen…
Chapters 1 / 2 / 3 / 4/ 5/ Because of the strong emphasis on oral tradition and poetry as literature, classical Korean written literature is rare. While the oral and poetic traditions date back to the Silla period, classical written fiction appears relatively late in the Joseon Dynasty. There are a few written records predating the 12th century,…
Chapters 1 / 2 / 3 / 4/ Almost every English language reader would immediately recognize the words “”Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to discover that he had been transformed into a giant cockroach.” as the first line of Franz Kafka’s masterpiece The Metamorphosis, a work that helped define his style and changed literature forever. Quote to an English reader…