The RAS Korean Literature Club discussion

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A comprehensive list of books read and discussed by the RAS Korean Literature Club during the year:

2020.

(For earlier and later years, see this folder.)

Included is such information as: Author, translator, publisher, year; original titles in Hangul and author names and info in Hangul; notes on where online to find some of the hard-to-find or otherwise-unpublished material (when applicable); discussion leaders; and, where applicable, other notes (such as author presences or other special events).

Add a comment for corrections or additions, as with technical information, anything missing or incorrect.

For general discussion on the literary value, etc., of the books, go to the (General forum).



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. . . . . . . [2020] . . . . . . .
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[January 15, 2020]
- Book: FARMERS' DANCE: A CYCLE OF POEMS
- Author: Shin Kyong-nim
- Translator(s): Brother Anthony of Taize & Young-Moo Kim
- Publisher: Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University Press
- Year of publication: March 2010
- Original book info: Title, "Nongmu" [농무/農舞]; author Shin Kyŏng-rim [Shin Kyong-nim] (신경림, b.1936?-2024); published orig. 1973 in collected (book) form, Changbi Publishing (창작과비평사); many of the poems published in the "the avant-garde review Ch'angjak-kwa Pip'yong in 1970" (per Br Anthony).
- GR entry: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
- Translated version available online? YES, at https://tinyurl.com/33pw7waa (12,500 words)
- Discussion leader(s): Yonjoo Hong & Brother Anthony of Taize

- Note: "It would be difficult to exaggerate the historical significance of [Shin Kyong-nim's Farmer's Dance] in the development of modern Korean poetry[, as it] helped open the way for public acceptance of a poetry rooted in harsh social realities, a militant literature that was to grow into the workers' poetry of the 1980s" (introduction). In 1974, Shin Kyong-nim won the first Manhae Literary Award. A political Leftist, in 1980 he was arrested in connection with the charges against then-dissident Kim Dae-jung.

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[February 12, 2020]
- Book: THE NINE CLOUD DREAM
- Author: Kim Manjung
- Translator(s): Heinz Insu Fenkl
- Publisher: Penguin Classics
- Year of publication: Feb. 2019
- Original book info: Title, "Ku-un Mong" (구운몽/九雲夢); author, Kim Manjung (김만중, 1637-1692), published 1687.
- GR entry: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
- Discussion leader(s): Yonjoo Hong & Brother Anthony of Taize

- Note: There have been at least three major English-translations of this classic, Chosun-era story. One by James Scarth Gale (1922); another by Richard Rutt (1974). (Both men were involved with the Royal Asiatic Society in their times.) These earlier publications were under conditions not conducive to wide consumption; with the popularity of Korean literature by the close of the 2010s, the Heinz Insu Fenkl's translation "finally made [Nine Cloud Dream] an accessible part of world literature."

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[March 12, 2020]
CANCELLED.

The Club's scheduled March 2020 meeting was never held. On February 18, the leaders announced: "We will consider streaming you into the session if this virus scare is ongoing next month. Keeping fingers crossed!" (The drive towards the 2020-2022 period's shutdowns, disrupts, social-distancing had begun.)

The full cancellation and suspension announcement was made on February 26, 2020.

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***On the early-2020s 'Corona' disruption to the RAS-KLC***

The Corona/Covid shutdowns, government bans on gatherings, and related disruptions did lasting damage to the Club, from which it recovered fully only by 2025.

South Korean government policies between ca. March 2020 and ca. March 2022 effectively banned group gatherings like this club's -- or at least highly discouraged and undermined them). This, combined with other social pressures from the "Covid" restrictions, meant that by May 2020 the Club was indefinitely in a remote-only (Zoom app) mode.

The "all-online, 'Zoom' period" lasted from the April 2020 session until the May 2022 session. A partial n-person component of the Club returned in June 2022. The mixed format, however, generally remained from June 2022 to June 2024. The return to the 2010s-era in-person-only model occurred in summer 2024. The aggregate period of full-or-partial disruption to Korean Literature Club in-person activities: almost 4.5 years!

Difficulty adjusting to the all-online format led 2020 to be the perhaps the least-effective year ever for the Club. Only nine gatherings held. Seven were in the all-online-Zoom format. Club morale was flagging; identity weakened.

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[April 29, 2020]
- Book: MOUNTAINS, STREAMS, PLANTS, AND TREES (San-ch'on-ch'o-mok)
- Author: Yi Hae-Jo
- Translator(s): Brother Anthony of Taize & Jeongsoo Shin
- Publisher: Literature Translation Institute of Korea (KLTI)?
- Year of publication: ca. early 2010s?
- Original book info: Title, "San-ch'on-ch'o-mok" (산천초목); author, Yi Hae-cho (Lee Hae-jo) (이해조, 1869-1927); orig. published in 62 installments in Taehan-Minbo newspaper (대한민보, Hanyang/Seoul), March 10 to May 31, 1910; as a stand-alone book, 1912.
- GR entry: n/a
- Translated version available online? YES, at https://tinyurl.com/yp62s5um (18,600 words)
- Discussion leader(s): Yonjoo Hong & Brother Anthony of Taize

- Note 1: This was the first-ever gathering of the Korean Literature Club that was online-only (the app 'Zoom') and apparently the first to have any remote component.

- Note 2: The book Mountains, Streams, Plants and Trees was also read and discussed by the Korean Literature Club in its March 2015 session.

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[May 28, 2020]
- Book: ROMANTIC TALES FROM OLD KOREA
- Author: various, traditional
- Translator(s): Brother Anthony of Taize
- Publisher: Seoul Selection
- Year of publication: June 2016
- Original book info: various, traditional (see note)
- GR entry: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
- Discussion leader(s): Yonjoo Hong & Brother Anthony of Taize

- Note 1: This is a collection of five traditional stories and a substantial translator's introduction. The centerpiece story is Chunhyang (춘향전; compiled, ca. 18th century). The translation here is from the French 1892 version. Publisher Seoul Selection says: "In 1892, the first Korean to visit Paris, Hong Jong-u, helped publish a French version of the story of Chunhyang. Titled Fragrant Springtime (the meaning of “Chunhyang”), it is the first Korean story ever published in a western language."

- Note 2: The is a companion-volume to Eerie Tale from Old Korea (see Oct 2020 entry).

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[June 25, 2020]
- Book: THAT BOY'S HOUSE
- Author: Park Wan-suh
- Translator(s): Brother Anthony of Taize
- Publisher: Koreana magazine
- Year of publication: Spring 2013 (Vol. 27, No. 1)
- Original book info: Title, "Kŭ Namja-ne Chip" (그 남자네 집); author, Pak Wan-sŏ [Park Wan-suh] (박완서, 1931-2011); originally published in December 2004 by Hyundae-Munhak Publishing (현대문학).
- GR entry: n/a
- Translated version available online? YES, at https://tinyurl.com/2fm79st3 (10,800 words)
- Discussion leader(s): Yonjoo Hong & Brother Anthony of Taize

- Note: The Club had earlier read "That Boy's House" for the April 2016 session; and later read a different Park Wan-suh story, Aug 2024. (See Aug 2024 for author-bio note.)

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[July 29, 2020]
- Book: FESTIVAL OF ASHES
- Author: Park Chan Soon
- Translator(s): Brother Anthony of Taize
- Publisher: Koreana magazine
- Year of publication: Summer 2020 (Vol. 34, No. 2)
- Original book info: Title, "Chae-ŭi Ch'ukche" (재의 축제); author, Pak Ch'ansun [Park Chan Soon] (박찬순, b.1946); published orig. August 2017 in a story collection (titled "북남시집 오케스트라") by Theoria Publishing (테오리아).
- GR entry: n/a
- Translated version available online? YES, at https://tinyurl.com/mpaatnx2 (7500 words)
- Discussion leader(s): Yonjoo Hong & Brother Anthony of Taize

- Note: Author Park Chan Soon began publishing fiction only in her early sixties (the late 2000s). She had spent over thirty years "working as a film translator for dubbing and subtitling...with over fifty documentaries and hundreds of feature films to her credit." She was a professor of English Literature at Seoul Women's University.

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[August 2020]
No meeting?

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[September 4, 2020]
- Book: MILDAWON DAYS
- Author: Kim Tong-ni
- Translator(s): Brother Anthony of Taize
- Publisher: Koreana magazine
- Year of publication: Winter 2016-17 (Vol. 33, No. 4)
- Original book info: Title, "Miltawŏn-shidae" (밀다원시대); author, Kim Tong-ri [alt., Kim Dong-ni] (김동리, 1913-1995); published orig. April 1955, Hyundae-Munhak magazine (현대문학). Republished in many later collections.
- GR entry: n/a
- Translated version available online? YES, at https://tinyurl.com/4968v9j5 (9,650 words)
- Discussion leader(s): Yonjoo Hong & Brother Anthony of Taize

- Note: The Club read another work by Kim Tong-ni in May 2021 (Hwangt'ogi, Red Clay Tales). Kim Tong-ni is unusual among the writers of his generation, never being associated with Leftist-nationalist movement(s).

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[October 29, 2020]
- Book: EERIE TALES FROM OLD KOREA
- Author: traditional; Brother Anthony of Taize (compiler)
- Translator(s): Homer Hulbert & James Scarth Gale
- Publisher: Seoul Selection
- Year of publication: May 2013
- Original book info: n/a
- GR entry: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
- Discussion leader(s): Yonjoo Hong & Brother Anthony of Taize

- Note: A collection of 29 ghost stories and similar, from early-20th-century translators. Companion volume to Romantic Tales from Old Korea (The club's May 2020 book).

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[November 2020]
No meeting?

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[December 3, 2020]
- Book: KIM JI-YOUNG, BORN 1982
- Author: Cho Nam-Joo
- Translator(s): Jamie Chang
- Publisher: Liveright / W. W. Norton & Co.
- Year of publication: April 2020
- Original book info: Title, "82nyŏnsaeng Kim Chi-yŏng" (82년생 김지영); author, Cho Namchu [Cho Nam-joo] (조남주, b.1978); published orig. Oct. 2016, Minumsa Publishing (민음사).
- GR entry: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
- Discussion leader(s): Yonjoo Hong & Brother Anthony of Taize

- Note 1: In September 2020, Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 was one of ten nominees for the "longlist" of the (U.S.) "National Book Award for Translated Literature" (it ultimately did not make the top-five "shortlist"), the first Korean work so nominated since this award began in 2018. (Other books read by the Korean Literature Club later nominated for the award, include the club's Feb. 2022 book, Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung.)

- Note 2: In mid-November 2020, Time magazine released a list titled "The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020." It included works by three Koreans, including Kim Ji-young, Born 1982. This late-2020 list reflects the "K-culture" breakthrough, by then being felt in earnest in the West. (Commentators also identified a political impetus: the book has been called a "#MeToo bestseller.")

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The above is for books read and discussed in 2020 only. For earlier years, see:

LIST OF ALL BOOKS READ BY THE CLUB

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