KOREAN LITERATURE 1

Korean literature 1 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".
The course aims to provide students with an overview of classical Korean literature from its origins to the pre-modern period.

The course aims at introducing the students to the birth of Korean Literature and its evolution,analyzing the intersection between oral production, literary forms from China and local, vernacular literature.

Knowledge and comprehension:
- knowing and understanding the main elements (authors, movements, works and so on) of the history of Korean poetry from the origins to the end of the 19th century.
- 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

The course has no specific prerequisites.

Introduction: What is Literature?
What is Korean Literature?
Problems with 'Canon'.
The question of 'Primary Sources
Proposal for a different classification.
A. Literature in Verse - Poetry in vernacular (hyangga, Koryo songs, 용비어천가, sijo, sasol sijo, kasa, kaehwagi sijo/kasa); Poetry in hanmun
B. Literature in prose - Buddhist agiography, prose (sanmun), memoirs, satire, diaries (ilgi).
C. Fiction - Stories of marvels, stories of wonders, sosol, texts by anonymous; Fiction in vernacular - biographies
D. Oral Literature - Foundation Myths, legends, popular stories, yadam, folk songs, shaman songs, p'ansori, Mask Theatre, Puppet Theatre
E. Literary Criticisms (Premodern period)
G. Conclusions

1. Testi di base
Peter H Lee A History of Korean Literature (2003)
Cho Heekyung The Routledge Companion to Korean Literature (2022)
Peter H Lee An Anthology of Traditional Korean Literature (UH Press, 2017)
Pettid Michael (et al. eds) Premodern Korean Literary Prose (Columbia University Press, 2018)

2. Letture di approfondimento
Kevin O’Rourke The Book of Korean Shijo
Kevin O’Rourke The Book of Korean Poetry – Songs of Shilla and Koryŏ
Kim Hung-Gyu Understanding Korean Literature
Kim Kichung An Introduction to Classical Korean Literature – From Hyangga to P’ansori
David McCann Early Korean Literature
Peter H Lee The Columbia Anthology of Korean Traditional Literature
Peter H Lee Sourcebook of Korean Civilization 1&2

Ulteriore materiale e informazioni bibliografiche verranno fornite a lezione.

The final test for this course will consist of an oral exam on all subjects introduced in the classroom.

Teacher-led classes. 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 that have been introduced.

Italian

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