The Korean vernacular story : telling tales of contemporary Chosŏn in sinographic writing / Si Nae Park.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Park, Si Nae, 1979- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Korean prose literature--19th century--History and criticism.

Korean prose literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (324 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

New York, New York State : Columbia University Press, 2020.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

As the political, economic, and cultural center of Chosŏn Korea, eighteenth-century Seoul epitomized a society in flux: It was a bustling, worldly metropolis into which things and people from all over the country flowed. In this book, Si Nae Park examines how the culture of Chosŏn Seoul gave rise to a new vernacular narrative form that was evocative of the spoken and written Korean language of the time.The vernacular story (yadam) flourished in the nineteenth century as anonymously and unofficially circulating tales by and for Chosŏn people. The Korean Vernacular Story focuses on the formative role that the collection Repeatedly Recited Stories of the East (Tongp’ae naksong) played in shaping yadam, analyzing the collection’s language and composition and tracing its reception and circulation. Park situates its compiler, No Myŏnghŭm, in Seoul’s cultural scene, examining how he developed a sense of belonging in the course of transforming from a poor provincial scholar to an urbane literary figure. No wrote his tales to serve as stories of contemporary Chosŏn society and chose to write not in cosmopolitan Literary Sinitic but instead in a new medium in which Literary Sinitic is hybridized with the vernacular realities of Chosŏn society. Park contends that this linguistic innovation to represent tales of contemporary Chosŏn inspired readers not only to circulate No’s works but also to emulate and cannibalize his stylistic experimentation within Chosŏn’s manuscript-heavy culture of texts.The first book in English on the origins of yadam, The Korean Vernacular Story combines historical insight, textual studies, and the history of the book. By highlighting the role of negotiation with Literary Sinitic and sinographic writing, it challenges the script (han’gŭl)-focused understanding of Korean language and literature.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

A Note to the Reader

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE The Compiler

CHAPTER TWO The Narrative World

CHAPTER THREE The Language

CHAPTER FOUR The Text in Motion

Coda

Appendix A: The Original Text and Translation of “The Biography of No, the Clumsy Old Man”

Appendix B: A Translation of “The Story of a Slave Girl from Chirye”

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-231-55132-0

OCLC:

1202623166