Un pais de borrachos: Narrativa modernista coreana

by Ch'ae Man-Sik, Yi Sang, Hyun Jingeon

En los últimos años de la ocupación japonesa, Corea vivía una modernidad fracturada con ciudades en expansión, cafés llenos de humo, trenes abarrotados y una sensación persistente de que el futuro podía desvanecerse en cualquier momento. Entre la censura, la represión política y una transformación social vertiginosa surgió una literatura capaz de moverse entre la ironía, el absurdo y la melancolía. Un país de borrachos reúne a siete figuras centrales del modernismo coreano —Chae Mansik, Yi Sang, Hyun Jingeon, Kim Yujeong, Lee Muyoung, Kim Dongin, Lee Hyoseok— que retratan un país donde las tabernas eran refugio y escenario, la evasión una forma de resistencia y la escritura un modo de enfrentar el vacío. Sus relatos deambulan por calles atestadas, salones repletos de murmullos y habitaciones donde la soledad y el desarraigo se beben a sorbos.

282 pages, Paperback

About the author

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...)