This course aims to enhance students’ understanding of Korea through an overview of modern Korean literature from the twentieth century to the present. Students will examine a wide range of literary texts (translated in English) in their relationship with socio-historical contexts of Korea as well as global literary trends. Through the examination, students will understand Korea and its literary production as a unique lived experience yet as part of the global experience. During the twentieth and twenty-first century, the Korean peninsula went through tumultuous social changes from colonization to national division, from industrialization to democratization, and from globalization to neoliberalism. By reading diverse literary genre—from novels to short stories, poetry, autobiographies, and memoirs—students will learn how the literary forms have engaged with the social changes in Korea in conversations with global literary aesthetic trends such as modernism, realism, existentialism, and feminism. No prior knowledge of Korean language and history is needed. All course materials are in English.
