KOREAN LITERATURE 2

This is one of the core courses within the Korea curriculum of the Corso di Laurea in "Lingue, Culture e Società dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea".
Its formative objectives fall into the learning area of the humanities and cultural competencies.
First of all Korean Literature 2 aims at providing the students with an introduction to the main stepstones which marked the birth, development and establishment of modern and contemporary Korean poetry, during the XX century and the first decade of the new Millennium.
It also wishes to describe the rooting process of Modern poetry into the Korean literary production of the entire XX century and the first decade of the XXI century.
In particular, we will follow literary (poetry) developments side by side with the evolution of historical events, and see how the two paths are inevitably interwoven.

The course aims at introducing the students the encounter with Modern Western Literature and its evolution, by providing a dialectical description of the exchanges between traditional and modern literary schools, and analyzing the reasons for their fortune or their failures.

Knowledge and comprehension:
- knowing and understanding the main elements (authors, movements, works and so on) of the history of Korean poetry from 1910 to che contemporary period.
- connect them with historical and cultural developments studied in other courses of the same curriculum.

Ability to apply knowledge and comprehension:
- ability to analyze and explain literary texts by utilizing given interpretation methods

Judgment abilities:
- ability to produce critiques on textual, historical and literary themes included in the study programme, by recurring to critically and historically solid arguments
- ability to evaluate all kinds of literary primary sources

Communicative abilities:
- ability to express and elaborate in writing the contents of the course programme, using critical approach and not mnemonical strategies.

Learning abilities:
- learn how to take notes effectively and thoroughly
- how to integrate the study on different materials (notes, slides, manuals, creative texts and academic articles)
- learning to study autonomously with materials and on subjects not covered in class
- Learning how to deal with materials in English

Having attended and passed the exam of Korean Literature 1

1. Birth of Modern Poetry.
2. Poetry Movements of the first decade of the XX century.
3. Twenties/Thirties: Raise and Failure of Modernism.
4. Early women poets.
5. Poetry of Resistance against Japan(1)
6. Poetry of Resistance against Japan(2)
7. Other Poetry Movements and Trends of the Thirties and Forties
8. New Literary ferments after Liberation
9. Poetry faces the Tragedy of National Division and of a Fratricidal War.
10. Poetry of the Sixties/Seventies: birth of participatory literature (ch'amyo
munhak). New Women's Poetry.
11. Minjung Movement and Democratization Struggle of the Eighties.
12. The Nineties and the birth of a new civil conscience. Poetic Ecologism and
Neo-Experimentalism
13. The New Millennium - New Authors (1)
14. The New Millennium - New Authors (2)
15. A Glimpse into North Korean Poetry

Required Readings:

1) Textbooks (compulsory reading materials):
Kwon Youngmin, Bruce Fulton, What Is Korean Literature? Korea Research Monograph 37, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA: 2020 (only Part II, chapters 6, 7 and 10 - pp. 236-241)
Lee Peter H. (ed.) A History of Korean Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2003
(chapters 18, 21, 22 and 25 - For an introduction to the historical and
ideological background of North Korean literary production).
Lee Peter H. (comp. & ed.) Modern Korean Literature – An Anthology, University of Hawaii
Press, Honolulu: 1990 (only Introduction and chapters on Poetry: pp. 24-30, 75-89,
150-168, 272-309).
McCann David R. (ed.), The Columbia Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry, Columbia
University Press, NY: 2004.

2) Further readings (partial list):
Chŏng Hyŏnjong [Joung Hyun-jong] “Poetry as a Possibility of Life”, Iowa Review, 1976,
Spring/Summer, pp. 263-268
Chung, Chong-wha Modern Korean Literature: An Anthology 1908-65, Kegan Paul
International, London: 1995.
Kim Jae-hong, Hyun Theresa “Translation as Cultural re-modelling: Kim Ok and the
creation of Modern Korean Poetic Forms”, Revue de litterature comparee, 65:2, 1991.
Kim Uchang et al. “The Direction of National Literature in the 1990s”, Korea Journal
1992 Summer, pp. 5-21
Kim Yunsik Understanding Modern Korean Literature, Trans. Jang Gyung-ryul.
Jipmoondang Publishing Co., Seoul: 1998.
Korea Literature Translation Institute (comp.) Korean Writers – The Poets, Minumsa,
Seoul: 2005
Korean National Commission for UNESCO, ed. Korean Literature: Its Classical Heritage and
Modern Breakthroughs, Hollym, Seoul and Elizabeth, N.J.: 2003.
Ku Chung-So “The Development of Critical Literature in the 80s.” Korea Journal 26:7
(1986): 35-51.
Kwon Young-min “Contemporary Literature as Division Literature.” Korea Journal 27:7
(1987): 34-40.
McCann, David Form and Freedom in Korean Poetry, Brill, Leiden and New York: 1988.
Sym Myung-Ho Making of Modern Korean Poetry: Foreign Influences and Native
Creativity, Seoul National University Press, Seoul: 1982, pp. 350.
Yoon Ho-Byeong Encounters between French Symbolist Poetry and Modern Korean Poetry,
Korea Journal, October 1987, pp. 11-27/52
Yu Beongcheon Han Yong-un and Yi Kwang-su: Two Pioneers of Modern Korean
Literature, Wayne State University, Detroit: 1992.


3) Works in translation (partial list) - (necessary for final paper):
Choi Cholli Radiance of Jades: Modern Korean Poets of a Past Generation,Lulu.com: 2006,
pp.171.
Choi Don Mee (transl.) Anxiety of Words - Contemporary Poetry by Korean Women: Ch’oe
Sŭngja, Kim Hyesoon & Yi Yŏnju, Zephire Press, Brookline, MA: 2006, pp.175.
Chŏng Hyŏnjong The Dream of Things: Selected Poems of Hyonjong Chong (Modern Poetry
from Korea), Homa and Sekey Book, 2008, pp. 108.
___Day-Shine, Selected Poems by Chŏng Hyŏnjong (translated by Choe Wolhee and Peter Fusco), Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853: 1998.
Ch’ŏn Sangpyŏng Back to Heaven, Selected Poems of Ch’ŏn Sang Pyŏng (trans. by
Brother Anthony of Taize and Kim Young-Moo) Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell
University, Ithaca, New York 14853 and UNESCO Publishing, Paris France: 1995.
Kim Jaihyun (transl.) Modern Korean Poetry, Asian Humanities Press: 1995, pp. 384.
____Modern Korean Sijo, Ronsdale Press; First edition: 1997, pp. 268.
____Modern Korean Verse in Sijo Form, Ronsdale Press, Vancouver:1997.
____Contemporary Korean Poetry, Mosaic Press, Oakville-Buffalo London: 1994.
Kim Ch’unsu The Snow Falling on Chagall’s Village, Selected poems by Kim Ch’un-su
(trans. by Kim Jong-Gil), Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University, Ithaca, New
York 14853: 1998.
FOR LACK OF CHARACTERS SPACE, THE COMPLETE LIST WILL BE PROVIDED IN CLASS

The final test for this course will be a written exam consisting of a test containing at least 10 open questions.

Lessons in class and online. Students' participation will be facilitated through readings of poetry texts in translation and in the original language, as well as through the production of comments on freely chosen texts among those available.

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