Mujong (the Heartless) : Yi Kwang-Su and Modern Korean Literature / Kwang-su Yi and Ann Sung-Hi Lee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yi, Kwang-su, 1873-1953, author.

Lee, Ann Sung-hi, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Korean literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 375 p. :) ill. ;

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : East Asia Program, Cornell University, [2005]

Summary:

Yi Kwang-su (1892–1950) was one of the pioneers of modern Korean literature. When the serialization of Mujong (The Heartless) began in 1917, it was an immediate sensation, and it occupies a prominent place in the Korean literary canon. The Heartless is the story of a love triangle among three youths during the Japanese occupation. Yi Hyōng-sik is a young man in his mid-twenties who is teaching English at a middle school in Seoul. Brilliant but also shy and indecisive, he is torn between two women. Kim Sōn-hyōng is from a wealthy Christian family; she has just graduated from a modern, Western-style school and is planning on continuing her studies in the United States. Pak Yōng-ch'ae is a musically gifted young woman who was raised in a traditional Confucian manner; due to family misfortune, she has become a kisaeng but remains devoted to Hyōng-sik whom she knew as a child. The Heartless goes beyond the level of romantic melodrama and uses these characters to depict Korea's struggles with modern culture and national identity. A long critical introduction discusses Yi Kwang-su's life and work from his birth in 1892 to the publication of his first novel The Heartless in 1917. It contains in-depth analyses of the novel, Yi Kwang-su's literary theory, and early short stories.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Note on Translation

THE HEARTLESS

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781942242277

1942242271

OCLC:

646484804