KOREAN

LITERATURE
HISTORY AND
CULTURE
OF
KOREA
 KOREA
 Located between China and
Japan.
 Continue cultural and
geopolitical interactions
with China and Japan.
 Korean Language is
considered “language
isolate”
 Five Thousand Years of Korean History
TIME FRAME
2333 B.C Go-Joseon
1st century B.C Three kingdoms (Shilla, Baekje and Goguryeo)
668 - 935 Shilla (south: 668-935)
Balhae (north: 698-926)
935 -1392 Goryeo Dynasty
1392 -1945 Joseon Dynasty
1910 - 1945 Japanese rule
1948 Established Republic of Korea in South, Democratic
Peoples Republic in the North
1950 - 1953 Korean war
1961 Military coup
1988 Seoul Olympics
 Five Thousand Years of Korean History
TIME
FRAME
 King Dan-gun established 2333 B.C Go-Joseon
1st century Three kingdoms (Shilla, Baekje and
Go-Joseon in 2333 B.C B.C Goguryeo)
668 - 935 Shilla (south: 668-935)
Balhae (north: 698-926)
935 -1392 Goryeo Dynasty
1392 -1945 Joseon Dynasty
1910 - 1945 Japanese rule
1948 Established Republic of Korea in South,
Democratic Peoples Republic in the
North
1950 - 1953 Korean war
1961 Military coup
1988 Seoul Olympics
 TIME
Three Kingdoms to Goryeo FRAME
2333 B.C Go-Joseon
 Buddhism became national 1st century Three kingdoms (Shilla, Baekje and
B.C Goguryeo)
religion. 668 - 935 Shilla (south: 668-935)
Balhae (north: 698-926)
 Arts and culture flourished 935 -1392 Goryeo Dynasty
during Shilla Dynasty. 1392 -1945 Joseon Dynasty
1910 - 1945 Japanese rule
1948 Established Republic of Korea in South,
Democratic Peoples Republic in the
North
1950 - 1953 Korean war
1961 Military coup
1988 Seoul Olympics
Joseon Dynasty TIME
FRAME
2333 B.C Go-Joseon
1st century Three kingdoms (Shilla, Baekje
 Expanded territory boundary up to B.C and Goguryeo)

Yalu river in north. 668 - 935 Shilla (south: 668-935)

Balhae (north: 698-926)
 Confucianism was promoted by 935 -1392 Goryeo Dynasty
government. 1392 -1945 Joseon Dynasty
1910 - 1945 Japanese rule
 Korean alphabet was invented.
1948 Established Republic of Korea in
 Sijo became popular. South, Democratic Peoples
Republic in the North

1950 - 1953 Korean war

1961 Military coup
1988 Seoul Olympics
 TIME
Japanese Rule FRAME
2333 B.C Go-Joseon

1st century Three kingdoms (Shilla, Baekje

B.C and Goguryeo)
 Japan annexed Korea by force in 1910.
668 - 935 Shilla (south: 668-935)
 Japan in 1938 outlawed use of Korean Balhae (north: 698-926)

language in an attempt to eradicate 935 -1392 Goryeo Dynasty

Korean national identity.
1392 -1945 Joseon Dynasty
 Deep lament and resentment toward 1910 - 1945 Japanese rule
invaders prevailed in Korean literature 1948 Established Republic of Korea
and music, along with attempts to in South, Democratic Peoples
Republic in the North
grapple with new, modern forms.
1950 - 1953 Korean war

1961 Military coup

1988 Seoul Olympics

 TIME
Divided Peninsula FRAME
2333 B.C Go-Joseon

1st century Three kingdoms (Shilla, Baekje

B.C and Goguryeo)
 In 1945 at Pestdam conference US
(Truman), USSR (Stalin) and UK 668 - 935 Shilla (south: 668-935)
Balhae (north: 698-926)
(Churchil) decided to divide Korean
935 -1392 Goryeo Dynasty
peninsula at 38th parallel without
consulting Koreans. 1392 -1945 Joseon Dynasty

1910 - 1945 Japanese rule

1948 Established Republic of Korea

in South, Democratic Peoples
Republic in the North

1950 - 1953 Korean war

1961 Military coup

1988 Seoul Olympics

 TIME
Korean War FRAME
2333 B.C Go-Joseon

1st century Three kingdoms (Shilla, Baekje

B.C and Goguryeo)
 North Korea invaded south by
launching surprise attack on June 25, 668 - 935 Shilla (south: 668-935)
Balhae (north: 698-926)
1950.
935 -1392 Goryeo Dynasty
 United Nations forces led by US
1392 -1945 Joseon Dynasty
defended South.
1910 - 1945 Japanese rule
 Many Koreans lost or separated from 1948 Established Republic of Korea
family members in both south and in South, Democratic Peoples
Republic in the North
north.
1950 - 1953 Korean war

1961 Military coup

1988 Seoul Olympics

 TIME
Modern Korea FRAME
2333 B.C Go-Joseon

1st century Three kingdoms (Shilla, Baekje

B.C and Goguryeo)
 Economic development plan began
after military coup in 1961. 668 - 935 Shilla (south: 668-935)
Balhae (north: 698-926)
 2009 Korean GDP ranked No.12 in the 935 -1392 Goryeo Dynasty
world.
1392 -1945 Joseon Dynasty

1910 - 1945 Japanese rule

1948 Established Republic of Korea

in South, Democratic Peoples
Republic in the North

1950 - 1953 Korean war

1961 Military coup

1988 Seoul Olympics

KOREAN CULTURAL EXPORT SINCE EARLY 1990’s

 Korean movies, TV dramas, and pop-music are

very popular around the world; rapidly
spreading beyond Asian countries.
 Korean is among the world’s top ten cultural
exporters.
 Korean Alphabet: Hangul
 King Sejong the Great invented
Korean alphabet.
 Alphabet organizes written
language into syllabic units.
 14 consonants and 10 vowels.
 Korean Literature
 Early Korean literature owes a great debt to China
in terms of the writing style. The literary language
was written in Chinese ideographs, even after the
invention of the Korean phonetic alphabet until the
end of the Yi dynasty.
 The Korean upper classes were therefore bilingual
in a special sense.
 Korean Literature
 The development of Korean Literature is quite
unique due to the creation of a complete new
language and writing system by the great King
Sejong in 1446, the hangul.
 Sejong wanted that everyone could have access to
culture but by the time Chinese characters were
essentials in philosophy and literature.
 Korean Literature
 A debate arose on what should be considered as
truly Korean Literature.

 Today, there is a common agreement to accept both

types of works in Chinese characters and in hangul
as a part of the Korean literature heritage.
 Korean Literature
 A debate arose on what should be considered as
truly Korean Literature.

 Today, there is a common agreement to accept both

types of works in Chinese characters and in hangul
as a part of the Korean literature heritage.
 Classical Literature
 Classical Korean literature developed against the
backdrop of traditional folk beliefs of the Korean
people; it was also influenced by Taoism,
Confucianism, and Buddhism.
 Classical Literature
 Hyangga
 The Hyangga poetry of the Shilla period signaled
the beginning of a unique poetic form in Korean
literature.

 4-line, 8 line, and 10-line poems.

 Classical Literature
 The ten lines poems are the most developed.

 They contain also a broad range of themes which

are reflected in a variety of poems suck as folk
songs, elegies to heroic hwarang knights, requiem
for a sister, didactic poems, shaman exorcism and
Buddhist prayer-poem.
 Classical Literature
 Goryeo (Changga)
 These songs of Goryeo are called long poems in
contrast with the later period Sijo that included only
three lines.

 They were first transmitted orally and later on

written down at the end of the 15th century and at
the beginning of 16th century.
 Classical Literature
 The Koryo songs are considered as the oldest
Korean songs.

 The themes of these poems deal with simple life

close to nature but they focus mainly on the theme
of love which can be ordinary love, the parting of
someone or special forms of love like the mother's
love.
 Classical Literature
 Sijo and Gasa
 Sijo is a short lyric verse. It is similar to the
Japanese haiku where it consists of 3 brief lines.
However, the sijo has forty to sixty syllables.

 They were first transmitted orally and later on

written down at the end of the 15th century and at
the beginning of 16th century.
 Classical Literature
 the theme of loyalty is common but many other
themes are dealt with: Regrets about aging, sorrow
over spurned love or loss of power and honor,
reaffirmation of loyalty to a lost cause.

 Gasa is a simple form of verse, with twinned feet of

three or four syllables each.
 Classical Literature
 the theme of loyalty is common but many other
themes are dealt with: Regrets about aging, sorrow
over spurned love or loss of power and honor,
reaffirmation of loyalty to a lost cause.

 Gasa is a simple form of verse, with twinned feet of

three or four syllables each.
 Modern Literature
 Modern literature gradually developed under the
influence of Western cultural contacts based on
trade and economic development.

 The first printed work of fiction in Korean was John

Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress translated by James
Scarth Gale (1893).
 Modern Literature
 Christian religion found its way into Korea,
culminating is the first complete edition of the Bible
in Korean published in 1910.

 Modern literature is often linked with the

development of hangul, which helped increase
working class literary rates.
 Modern Literature
 Hangul reached its peak of popularity in the second
half of the 19th century, resulting in a major
renaissance.
 Colonial Period
 During the Japanese rule of Korea (1910–1945), speech and
the press were restricted, affecting the Korean literature of
the time.

 With the Samil Movement in 1919, a new form of Korean

literature was established. Literature focused on self-
discovery, and increasingly on concrete reality. Artistic
endeavors were supported by national newspapers.
 Colonial Period
 Many novels of the 1920s centered around the themes of the
suffering of intellectuals who drift through reality. 

 As the Japanese government strengthened ideological

 coercion during the 1930s, Korean literature was directly
affected.
 After the liberation
 After 1945, there was a good start of genuine Korean
studies but it was lost again with the Korean War.

 After the liberation from Japan in 1945, Korea soon found

itself divided into North and South. The Korean War led to
the development of literature centered around the wounds
and chaos of war. 
 After the liberation
 In the 1960s many writers started to reject post-war
literature as sentimental escapism. While some Korean
authors reflected traditional humanism, writings by many
others reflect deep alienation and despair. 
 The 1970s saw the emergence of literature that was anti-
establishment and dealt with the concerns of rapid
industrialization, such as the neglect of farmers.
 After the liberation
 At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the national
division is still a common theme, but classic stories are also
popular.

 Until the 1980s, Korean literature was largely unknown outside of the
peninsula. The kind of works translated has become increasingly
diverse, and the quality of the translations has improved. Flowers of
Fire was one of the first anthologies of Korean literature published in
English. In non-English-speaking countries there are fewer Korean
works translated. The increased popularity of Korean film has
increased interest in Korean literature.
 The Crane
by Hwang Sun-Won

Which kind of loyalty comes first – loyalty to a

friend or to duty? What would you do if you had
to choose?
 The Crane
By Hwang Sun-won
The northern village at the border of the Thirty-eighth Parallel was snugly settled under
the high, bright autumn sky.
One white gourd lay against another on the dirt floor of an empty farmhouse. The
occasional village elders first put out their bamboo pipes before passing by, and the children,
too, turned aside some distance off. Their faces were ridden with fear.
The village as a whole showed few traces of destruction from the war, but it did not seem
like the same village Song-sam had known as a boy.
At the foot of a chestnut grove on the hill behind the village he stopped and climbed a
chestnut tree. Somewhere far back in his mind he heard the old man with a wen shout, “You
bad boy, you’re climbing up my chestnut tree again!”
The old man must have passed away, for among the few village elders Song-sam had met,
the old man was not to be found. Holding the trunk of the tree, Song-sam gazed at the blue
sky for a while. Some chestnuts fell to the ground as the dry clusters opened of their own
accord.
 The Crane
By Hwang Sun-won
In front of the farmhouse that had been turned into a public peace-police office, a young
man stood, tied up. He seemed to be a stranger, so Song-sam approached him to have a close
look. He was taken aback; it was none other than his boyhood playmate, Tok-chae.
Song-sam sat down on the dirt floor and lit a cigarette. Tok-chae was to be escorted to
Chongdan by one of the peace policemen.
After a time, Song-sam lit a new cigarette from the first and stood up. ”I’ll take the
fellow with me.”
Tok-chae, his face averted, refused to look at Song-sam. They left the village.
Song-sam kept on smoking, but the tobacco had no taste. He just kept drawing in the
smoke and blowing it out. Then suddenly he thought that Tok-chae, too, must want a puff.
He thought of the days when they used to share dried gourd leaves behind walls, hidden
from the adults. But today, how could he offer a cigarette to a fellow like this?
 The Crane
By Hwang Sun-won
Once when they were small, he went with Tok-chae to steal some chestnuts from the
grandpa with wen. It was Song-sam’s turn to go up the tree. Suddenly there came shuts from
the old man. He slipped and fell to the ground. Song-sam got chestnut needles all over his
bottom, but he kept on running. It was only when they reached a safe place where the old
man could not overtake them that he turned his bottom to Tok-chae. Plucking out those
needles hurt so much that he could not keep tears from welling up in his eyes. Tok-chae
produced a fistful of chestnuts from his pocket and thrust them into Song-sam’s…Song-sam
threw away the cigarette he had just lit. Then he made up his mind not to light another while
he was escorting Tok-chae.
They reached the hill pass, the hill where he and Tok-chae used to cut fodder for the
cows until Songsam had had to move near Chontae, south of the Thirty-eighth Parallel, two
years before the liberation. Song-sam felt a sudden surge of anger in spite of himself and
shouted, “So how many have you killed?” For the first time, Tok-chae cast a quick glance at
him and then turned away. “How many did you kill, you?” he asked again.
 The Crane by Hwang Sun-won
Tok-chae turned toward him once again and glared. The glare grew intense and his
mouth twitched. “So you managed to kill many, eh?” Song-sam felt his heart becoming clear
from within, as if an obstruction had been removed. “If you were vice-chairman of the
Communist League, why didn’t you run? You must have been lying low with a secret
mission.” Tok-chae did not answer. “Speak up, what is your mission?” Tok-chae kept
walking. Tok-chae is hiding something, Song-sam thought. He wanted to take a good look at
him, but Tok-chae would not turn his averted face.
Fingering the revolver at his side, Song-sam went on: “No excuse is necessary. You are
sure to be shot anyway. Why don’t you tell the truth here and now?”
“I’m not going to make any excuses. They made me vice-chairman of the league because I
was one of the poorest and I was a hard-working farmer. If that constitutes a crime worthy of
death, so be it. I am still what I used to be—the only thing I’m good at is digging in the soil.”
After a short pause, he added, “My old man is bedridden at home. He has been ill almost half
a year.” Tok-chae’s father was a widower, a hard-working poor farmer who lived only for his
son. Seven years ago his back had given out and his skin had become diseased. “You
married?” “Yes,” replied Tok-chae after a while. “To whom?” “Shorty.”
 The Crane by Hwang Sun-won
“To Shorty?” How interesting! A woman so small and plump that she knew the earth’s
vastness but not the sky’s altitude. Such a cold fish! He and Tok-chae used to tease her and
make her cry. And Tok-chae had married that girl.
“How many kids?” “The first is arriving in the fall, she says.”
Song-sam had difficulty swallowing a laugh about to explode in spite of himself.
Although he had asked how many kids Tok-chae had, he could not help wanting to burst
into laughter at the image of her sitting down, with a large stomach, one span around. But
he realized this was no time to laugh or joke over such matters.
“Anyway, it’s strange you did not run away.” “I tried to escape. They said that once the
South invaded, no man would be spared. So men between seventeen and forty were forcibly
taken to the North. I though of evacuating, even if I had to carry my father on my back.
But father said no. How could the farmers leave the land behind when the crops were ready
for harvest? He grew old on that farm depending on me as the prop and mainstay of the
family. I wanted to be with him in his last moments sothat I could close his eyes with my
own hand. Besides, where can farmers like us go, who know only living on the land?”
 The Crane by Hwang Sun-won

Last June Song-sam had had to take refuge. At night he had broken the news privately
to his father. But his father had said the same thing! Where can a farmer go, leaving all the
chores behind? So Song-sam left alone. Roaming about the strange streets and villages in
the South. Song-sam had been haunted by thoughts of his old parents and the young
children, left with all the chores. Fortunately, his family was safe then, as now.
The crossed the ridge of a hill. This time Song-sam walked with his face averted. The
autumn sun was hot on his forehead. This was an ideal day for the harvest, he thought.
When they reached the foot of the hill, Song-sam hesitatingly stopped. In the middle of
the field he spied a group of cranes that looked like men in white clothes bending over. This
used to be the neutralized zone along the Thirty-eighth Parallel. The cranes were still living
here, as before, while the people were all gone.
 The Crane by Hwang Sun-won

Once, when Song-sam and Tok-chae were about twelve, they had set a trap here,
without the knowledge of the adults, and had caught a crane, a Tanjong crane. They had
roped the crane, even its wings, and had paid daily visits, patting its neck and riding on its
back. Then one day they overheard the neighbors whispering. Someone had come from
Seoul with a permit from the governor general’s office to catch cranes as specimens or
something. Then and there the two boys dashed off to the field. That they would be found
out and punished was no longer a weighty concern; all they worried about was the fate of
their crane. Without a moment’s delay, still out of breath from running, they untied the
crane’s feet and wings. But the bird could hardly walk. It must have been worn out from
being bound. The two held it up in the air. Then, all of a sudden, a shot was fired. The
crane fluttered its wings a couple of times and came down again.
 The Crane by Hwang Sun-won
It was shot, they thought. But the next moment, as another crane from a nearby bush
fluttered its wings, the boys’ crane stretched its ling neck with a whoop and disappeared
into the sky. For a long time the two boys could not take their eyes away from the blue sky
into which their crane had soared.
“Hey, why don’t we stop here fro a crane hunt?” Song-sam spoke up suddenly. Tok-
chae was puzzled, struck dumb. “I’ll make a trap with this rope; you flush a crane over
here.”
Having untied Tok-chae’s hands, Song-sam already started crawling among the weeds.
Tok-chae’s face turned white. “You are sure to be shot anyway”—these words flashed
through his mind. Pretty soon a bullet would fly from where Song-sam had gone, he
thought. Some paces away, Song-sam quickly turned toward him. “Hey, how come you are
standing there like you’re dumb? Go flush the crane!”
Only then did Tok-chae catch on. He started crawling among the weeds. A couple of
Tanjong cranes soared high into the clear blue autumn sky, fluttering their huge wings.