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My Innocent Uncle

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Kore edebiyatında hiciv dolu toplumcu gerçekçi tutumuyla öne çıkan; Japon Sömürge döneminin en önemli yazarlarından biri kabul edilen Chae Man-sik, öyküleriyle Türkçede!

Güncel hayatın içinde olduğu kadar siyasi gündemin de tam merkezinde duran entelektüel bir figür olarak Chae Man-sik (1902-1950), Japon Sömürge ve II. Dünya Savaşı sonrası “Kurtuluş” dönemlerini eserlerinde yalın ve hiciv dolu bir dille işlemiştir.

Güldürü öğesi bol hicivleriyle fark yaratan dili sayesinde döneminde de fazlasıyla rağbet görmüş olan Chae Man-sik, sömürge polisinin baskıları artırdığı dönemde sömürge yanlısı olmak zorunda bırakılmasıyla da eleştiri oklarının ucundaki isimlerdendir. Kendi gibilere bu eleştirileri yapanlardan biri de Chae Man-sik’tir. “Halkına İhanet Eden”(1948) gibi hiciv dolu, sert bir eleştiri barındıran ve yarı-otobiyografik öğeler içeren öykülerde görüldüğü üzere, yazar döneminden rahatsız olduğu kadar, kendi geçmişinden ve hatta kendinden de rahatsızdır.

Dönemindeki her türlü ideolojiyi sert bir dille eleştiren Chae Man-sik, yeni kurulan Kore’nin ideolojik tutumundaki kusurları da dile getirmiştir. Bu politik anlamdaki “aktif” tutumu nedeniyle başı dertten kurtulmamıştır. Diğer yandan, birçok yazar “Kurtuluş” sonrası halk gözünde değer kaybetse de, Man-sik’in okuyucu gözünde koruduğu itibarı, onun ne kadar büyük bir yazar olduğunun göstergesidir.

Bu kitapta, Chae Man-sik’in yazarlık kariyerinde eşik noktası hükmündeki 8 öyküyü, belki de kariyerinin zirve noktası kabul edilebilecek olan “Benim Saf Amcam”(1938) adlı öyküsünün ismi eşliğinde size sunuyoruz.

Fihrist olarak, Kore edebiyatının klasik eserlerini ilk kez Türkçeye kazandırarak siz değerli okuyucularımıza sunmaktan mutluluk duyuyoruz.

118 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

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About the author

Ch'ae Man-Sik

12 books5 followers
Ch'ae Man-Sik’s literary debut came in 1924 with the publication in Joseon Literary World (Joseon mundan) of the short story “Toward the Three Paths” (Segillo). His early stories and plays were written from a class-sensitive perspective, and with the publication in 1932 of “Ready-made Life” (Ledi maeideu insaeng), he began to focus his attention on the plight of intellectuals in an era of colonial oppression, a subject matter he continued to pursue in such works as “An Intellectual and Mung-bean Cake” (Interi wa bindaetteok) and “My Idiot Uncle” (Chisuk, 1938). Arrested by the colonial government in 1938 for his affiliations with Society for Reading (Dokseohoe), Chae was released on the condition that he participates in the pro-Japanese literary organization, Korean Literary Society for Patriotism (Joseon munin bogukhoe), a stipulation to which he duly complied after his release. In December 1942, for example, Chae Mansik inspected the Japanese Army's Manchurian Front and wrote a celebratory account of what he had observed there. After Korea’s liberation from the Japanese rule, however, he reproached the pro-Japanese actions of Korean intellectuals at the end of the colonial period, including his own, in such works as “The Sinner Against the Nation” (Minjogui joein) and “Path of History” (Yeongno, 1946). Until his death on June 11, 1950, shortly before the outbreak of Korean War, Chae produced satires of contemporary society in post-Liberation Korea. “Constable Maeng” (Maeng sunsa, 1946) and “Story of a Rice Paddy” (Non iyagi) captures in an especially vivid manner the turbulence and confusion of a society embarked on the difficult process of rebuilding the nation. Chae Mansik’s collected works were published by Changjak gwa bipyeongsa in 1989. (Source URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%27ae...)

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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
Profile Image for indiffferente.
33 reviews
February 19, 2024
Esta correcte, crec que algunes storylines s’acaben de manera molt abrupte però també entenc que la part important d’aquests contes no és l’argument en si, sinó la realitat on habiten els personatges.
Profile Image for Glady Juria.
Author 1 book131 followers
September 8, 2022
Una de las mejores cosas que nos pueden ocurrir como lectoras es que un libro cumpla con nuestras expectativas.

Es lo que me ha ocurrido con «El idiota de mi tío».

Estamos ante un libro aparentemente sencillo, de pocas página, cuya complejidad reside en su contexto.

No es un libro para empezar a leer literatura coreana.

Es más, necesitarás un poco de contexto sobre la colonización japonesa en Corea. Si has visto o leído otros libros que tratan este tema, como «Pachinko», «Hierba» o «La isla de las mujeres del mar», tal vez no te haga falta. En caso contrario, te recomiendo que leas antes (aunque sea la página de Wikipedia) sobre la ocupación japonesa en Corea.

Una vez superado ese obstáculo, podrás disfrutar de tres relatos estupendo con una narrativa y un estilo que me han parecido magníficos.

Normalmente me gusta la narrativa desde un punto de vista personal, con un tono trágico. Esas historias me llegan al alma. Esto es diferente: me fascina la sátira, y es el rasgo más característico del relato que da nombre al libro. Ta vez por eso ha sido, de los tres, mi favorito.

Es uno de esos relatos en los que vas cambiando de parecer poco a poco acerca de un personaje en concreto: cuando los buenos ya no son tan buenos, ni los malos tan malos. Ese punto.

¿Te recomiendo este libro?

Solo si te gusta la literatura coreana más allá de las ficciones contemporáneas.

En mi caso, cumplió con mis expectativas.

Porque Libros de la Ballena es una editorial muy especial, llena de primeros trabajos: la gran parte de sus libros están hechos por los estudiantes del Máster de Edición de la UAM. Podríamos esperar fallos típicos de novatos, y probablemente en alguno lo haya, pero en este caso, lo que tenemos ante nosotras son libros hechos con toda la pasión, el cuidado y el cariño que ponen las personas que acaban de empezar: apenas sin experiencia, pero con todas las ganas de comerse el mundo.

Y solo por eso, si os interesa, dadle una oportunidad al libro, y echad un vistazo a la editorial.
Profile Image for Arlian.
382 reviews11 followers
November 26, 2022
This is the kind of Korean literature I could see more of!!

In my mind, there is a huge split between artists/actors/directors/poets/writers/ etc before the korean war and after. Korean creators from 1910-1950 have spunk, talent, style, politics, and ideas. However, most of them were either: 1. Disappeared by the Japanese 1. Disappeared during the war 3. Disappeared by North Korea 4. Starved to death during the post war period or 5. Disappeared by the post war military dictators. That's a lot fukkin' ways to die. The writers who came after the korean war...are bland. Boring. 2D. Trite. Shallow. I can keep going.

The story of Korea is so much more nuanced than many would like to tell it. This book, especially the absolute banger "One Upon a Paddy" shows how the Korean system was fucked before the Japanese colonial period, fucked during it, and fucked after it. It's all brutal misery and exploitation all the way down, forever.

Absolutely amazing book. Add it to your to-read list today.
Profile Image for Gokce Atac.
237 reviews15 followers
March 5, 2025
3,5/5…
Chae Man-sik Kore Edebiyatının genç denebilecek yaşta hayata veda eden, toplumcu gerçekçi ve hiciv eğilimli yazarı…
Dönemlerinin ikilemleriyle, hatalarının komedisiyle tarihsel koşullar ile yüzleşen karakterler…Son okuma daha titiz yapılabilirmiş…
Profile Image for Mehmet.
108 reviews11 followers
January 31, 2024
Japon işgali altındaki Kore'nin insanlarının yaşantısını ve düşünce yapısını okuyoruz. Okumuş insanların iş bulamayışı, entelektüellerin Japon sömürgeciliğine kendi çıkarları için katkı sağlaması (ki yazar da bunlardan biridir, "Halkına İhanet Eden" hikayesinde aslında kendisini de eleştirir), bağımsızlığa geçiş dönemi Kore'sinde yaşanan kafa karışıklığı, önceden Japonlara yapılan yaltaklanmanın bağımsızlık sonrası artık ABD'ye yapılması gibi birçok konuda Kore insanı hakkında eleştirel bir panorama sunuyor bizlere. Kitap biraz elimde süründü ama fena değildi.
Profile Image for zeyneb.
344 reviews82 followers
December 16, 2024
ben de amcamların güneş gözlükleriyle dalga geçtiğim için kendimi kötü bir yeğen sanıyordum, allah kulunu kapitalist yeğenden korusun.
Profile Image for Ocean G.
Author 11 books64 followers
March 15, 2023
This was a very pleasant surprise. These stories seemed quite nuanced in their critique. Yes, obviously the Japanese occupiers were extremely bad, but the government prior to it also took advantage of the people rather than look out for them. And quite possibly the government after as well. Also, the people who went along with the Japanese during occupation didn't necessarily get what they bargained for.

These are three stories: My Innocent Uncle, about a (pretty brainwashed) pro-Japanese laborer complaining about his leftist Uncle who is against Japanese rule. "A Ready-Made Life" is about an "educated" man not being able to build a life during the time of occupation. And "Once upon a Paddy" was probably my favorite, describing how life for the poor was corrupt before Japanese occupation, with nothing much changing after (and the confusion in the interim).
Profile Image for Billie Pritchett.
1,211 reviews121 followers
June 9, 2020
Here are three stories. The first involves a narrator talking turkey about his layabout socialist uncle, the second a man who goes to school and becomes an intellectual but society doesn't need him, and the third is about an old man who, once Korea is freed from Japan, doesn't register much of a difference. You can tell a lot about a country by what its citizens prize as literature. These three stories are considered classics of Korean literature, and they engage critically with the country as it was under Japanese occupation while at the same time acknowledging that better living standards for ordinary people still had a long way to go once the occupation ended. A nice window into this period in Korea's history.
Profile Image for V.
122 reviews8 followers
April 22, 2014
I found the first two short stories to be very interesting and really fun to read. However the third one lightly incomprehensible and not very entertaining.
As I have not read the original korean as if yet, I cannot tell if some of the weird old-timey word choices are a good type of resistance or not. sometimes it felt like I was reading a parody of a 1950's style tv show dialogue through the use of words like "jiminey".
Overall it is a quick read and worth it for the first two stories.
Profile Image for Stephan Stücklin-wightman.
11 reviews2 followers
June 30, 2013
Short and lively, and revealing of life in occupied Korea, this little book is soon read. It's enjoyable enough, but not one I'm going to keep.
Profile Image for William.
155 reviews31 followers
February 23, 2019
Three tales of struggling Korean men becoming angry or ambivalent for very specific contextual and political reasons.
Profile Image for Daniel Maria.
48 reviews
October 4, 2025
this book is a compact collection of three short stories by Ch’ae Man-sik, one of Korea’s most compelling satirical voices. Through shifting narrative perspectives—a naive nephew, a disillusioned intellectual, and a hopeful farmer—the author exposes the contradictions of colonial and post-liberation Korean society. His prose is rhythmic, ironic, and emotionally layered, blending theatrical dialogue with sharp social observation. The stories do not offer heroes, but rather flawed individuals caught in historical currents they cannot control.

Those short stories explores the collapse of intellectual idealism, the moral ambiguity of collaboration, and the persistent illusion of national redemption. Ch’ae’s characters are often trapped between tradition and modernity, between resistance and resignation. Without resorting to didacticism, he critiques both colonial oppression and the internal failures of Korean society. The result is a literary mirror—distorted, painful, and deeply human—that reflects the anxieties of a nation in transition.
Profile Image for Skadi00.
23 reviews
November 1, 2024
El libro ha sido la llave para entrar en la literatura coreana. Puedo decir que cada uno de sus relatos han reflejado, sin dudarlo, lo que hoy todavía existe. De cada uno de ellos me quedo con su mensaje, pero mi favorito es: El idiota de mi tío. Qué manera de llevar a un personaje... La sociedad habrá avanzado en muchos aspectos, pero la mentalidad de algunos siempre sigue intacta, da igual el siglo. La mentes cerradas resisten como las raíces que no aceptan que están secas. La edición de "Libros de la Ballena" es una maravilla. Me ha encantado conocer quién era Chae Mansik y su forma de pensar. A destacar la explicación final. Necesito más de Chae Mansik.
Profile Image for maya 🦦.
53 reviews2 followers
April 26, 2022
Read for my Intro to Modern Korean Literature class. Korean title is "치숙(痴叔)".

Told from the perspective of a young high-school aged boy's view of his father's cousin's husband, who is referred to in this story as his uncle (I'm assuming due to the Korean languages standards of titles for familial relation). Super funny story but also a little depressing. Chae Mansik is a master of satire.
Profile Image for Veli Çetin.
246 reviews4 followers
November 2, 2024
Storytel'de sadece "Benim Saf Amcam" seslendirilmis. O nedenle çok şükür ki kısaydı, dayanabildim.
Profile Image for Arzu Onuklu.
968 reviews9 followers
November 4, 2024
Nasıl asimilasyon olunura giris dersinin kitabı niteliğinde kitabin içine girip amcasıyla konuşan genci boğup işin içinden cıkmak istedim. İliklerine kadar vatan derdi olmayanlar bu kitabı beğenirler
Profile Image for Shawnee.
152 reviews1 follower
June 21, 2025
Empecé a leerlo pero de pronto me vi yendo a los capítulos finales para entender cómo había sido el proceso de traducción. Lo cual resulta bastante útil para luego leer las historias.

Historias que me parecen impecables e implacables.

He dejado pocas cosas sin subrayar, porque soy de esas personas que solo cierto tipos de libros, releo. Y este es uno de ellos.

No tengo claro que le pueda llegar a calar tan hondo a personas que no estén inmersas o interesadas en Corea. Tendría que pedirle a alguna amistad que lo leyese para poderlo valorar porque en ese sentido, no soy sujeto imparcial.
Profile Image for Jose Cruz.
748 reviews33 followers
January 7, 2023
Recopilatorio de relatos, de 132 páginas, publicado en 2022, ambientado en la Corea ocupada por Japón, de los años treinta. Los tres relatos de los que se compone nos muestran las vidas difíciles de sus protagonistas, licenciados universitarios, que regresaban de las universidades de Japón con ideas socialistas, que no encuentran trabajo en Corea, cayendo en la frustración.
Me han gustado los tres relatos, pero quizás un poco más el segundo "Vidas de usar y tirar" y el tercero "El agente Maeng". La obra fue censurada por el gobierno japonés, varias frases fueron eliminadas. Podríamos considerar al autor dentro del Realismo social. Obtuvo malas críticas en Corea, por el mal funcionamiento de la burguesía del momento, y su incapacidad para dar trabajo a los recién licenciados. En estas páginas se revela la situación de sus intelectuales condenados a caer en la pobreza al volver a una Corea ocupada, refugiándose en el alcohol.
Me ha gustado mucho su lectura, directa, provocadora y crítica, y he aprendido de esta instantánea de aquella Corea ocupada de los años treinta. De muy recomendada lectura.
Profile Image for Hernan Alvarez.
204 reviews17 followers
May 12, 2024
El disfrute esta en la oscuridad. Queria empezar con esa frase y establecer que creo fervientemente en ella, por lo menos en la literatura. Refuerzo esta idea luego de leer a Chae Mansik.

En "El idiota de mi tío y otros idiotas" el autor nos muestra el lado oscuro del sueño coreano. Hoy en dia vemos a Corea como una sociedad casi utópica y de avanzada, ultra educada y de economía prospera y estable, pero no siempre fue así. Es muy interesante ver la evolución del pais (y todo lo que quedo en el camino) a través de su literatura.

Más allá del aspecto historico y testimonial de los cuentos del libro, el estilo de Mansik atrapa y hunde al lector en las miserias de la sociedad. Sentimos el asco, la lástima y otras miserias de los que quedaron afuera. Nos hermana a sus personajes con vivencias compartidas en el capitalismo decadente. Destaco la cuidada edicion. La traducción de Alvaro Trigo Maldonado es impecable, mantiene la frescura de una narración oral.
Profile Image for Cristina Padilla.
389 reviews2 followers
December 9, 2023
Siendo sincera, este título es uno de los primeros que leo de un autor surcoreano.

Soy una gran amante de la literatura asiática pero me suelo centrar en la japonesa. Cuando vi este título en el catálogo de la editorial "Libros de la ballena", me llamó mucho la atención y decidí leerlo.

Es un libro corto, muy interesante, en el que se juntan tres relatos del autor en los que mete al lector en una sociedad polarizada como lo era la coreana durante la invasión japonesa, guerra y posterior liberación.

Hay que destacar la edición cuidada y toda la información que se añade tanto en el prólogo como en el apéndice y la nota a la edición. Si os gusta la literatura asiática y dar oportunidad a autores menos conocidos en occidente, este libro os encantará.
Profile Image for Edulq.
64 reviews2 followers
February 4, 2024
Casi que me ha gustado más la explicación sobre el proceso de traducción y edición del libro que el libro en si. Son relatos cortos sobre los problemas típicos de esa época: el colonialismo, la falta de oportunidades para los jóvenes que estudian en la metrópoli, la falta de dinero, etc. Sí que destaca que no son relatos típicos a favor de la independencia de Corea, si no que la presencia japonesa está como algo casi normal, e incluso a veces como algo positivo, aunque tampoco es que el libro sea 100% projaponés. Pero bueno, en general curioso, esa es mi valoración
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews

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