A Ready-Made Life: Early Masters of Modern Korean Fiction

Introduction

1 Introduction Kim Chong-un and Bruce Fulton ew modern literatures have developed as rapidly as that of Korea. At the end of the nineteenth century many Korean writers still wrote in Chinese, the classical literary language, though the admirably precise native script, hangΔl, had existed since the mid-1400s. But by the 1920s Korean fiction writers had begun producing works in hangΔl that, while bearing noticeable similarities in style to Western fiction, were unmistakably Korean in tone, theme, and outlook. And by the 1930s Korea had produced several masters of the short story form. How did this rapid development come about? The history of early modern Korean fiction, extending from the late teens to Liberation from Japanese colonial rule, must be seen first and foremost in light of the nation’s colonization by Japan from 1910 to 1945. Japanese rule offered a not always consistent blend of oppression and enlightenment whose legacy is still debated. It seems clear, though, that the Japanese presence played a significant role in modern Korean literary history, in that the modernization movement that swept East Asia beginning in the late 1800s was centered in Japan. The lure of modernization drew many young Koreans to Japan for their higher education, and it was there that many aspiring writers— indeed many of the writers represented in this anthology—became acquainted with Western forms of literature, which were widely available in Japanese translation. Hwang Sun-wôn, for example, Korea’s preeminent short fiction writer, read such authors as O. Henry, Maupassant, Turgenev, Balzac, Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, and Hemingway , in addition to the Japanese authors Shiga and Dazai, while studying at Waseda University. Perhaps more important for the future of modern Korean fiction, young Korean intellectuals saw for the first F 2 Introduction time, in Natsume Sòseki and others, the possibility of creative writing as a profession. Returning to Korea, they quickly put these experiences to use, founding literary magazines and publishing there and in newspapers as well. Interpretations of these early developments, and of the origins of modern Korean literature in general, tend to follow two almost antithetical lines. The great majority of Korean literature specialists in Korea emphasize the native elements of modern Korean literature. They stress the literary contributions of Pak Chi-wôn and other shirhak (practical learning) scholars of the 1700s. It was those writers and scholars, they argue, who represent the origins of modern Korean literature and modern Korean thought. Other Korean scholars, most of them trained in Western literatures, emphasize the influence of the Western tradition. A more persuasive view is that modern Korean literature derived to an important extent from both native and foreign traditions. As Marshall R. Pihl has noted: In seeking formative influences on writers of early modern [Korean] fiction, like Ch’ae Man-shik and Yi Kwang-su, we must consider not only historical influences (Confucian didactic materials in Korean, vernacular written fiction, Buddhist narratives, and oral literature ) but also contemporary experiments in Korean composition (Bible translation; reports, editorials, sketches, and anecdotes in early newspapers; and textbooks for modern education). In addition , we must also look at the growing impact of foreign literary culture, particularly Japanese (or Japanized), and judge its role in the rapidly changing state of Korean writing during the era of early experimentation and the ensuing take-off of the 1920s.1 The reality of the Japanese occupation, which was driven home by the brutal imperial policies that led to Korea’s March 1, 1919, Independence Movement, had the effect of popularizing hangΔl as a vehicle for literary expression by Koreans. After crushing the independence movement, imperial Japan tried a new tack—the so-called Cultural Policy. In this climate of relative freedom of artistic expression , Korean literature began to flower. But with the outbreak of the Pacific War, colonial policy once again became oppressive. During the latter years of the occupation, when Japan banned materials writ1 . Marshall R. Pihl, “Narrative Technique in Korean Fiction, 1860–1940” (paper presented to the annual conference of the Association for Asian Studies, New Orleans, 1991), 3. Introduction 3 ten in Korean, and when some Korean writers took the fateful step of writing in Japanese, the very act of writing in hangΔl was a courageous political statement and an affirmation of artistic freedom. The rapid development of short fiction in early modern Korea is due in large part to its status...