Wykład Gościnny w ramach programu CEEPUS

dla studentów filologii koreańskiej

“Issues of Korean Society as Mirrored in Fiction”.

This lecture on “Issues of Korean Society as Mirrored in Fiction” investigates representations of Korean reality found in Korean fiction. The short stories chosen for this class give an in-depth and holistic look into many issues that are currently a matter of public discourse and debate in South Korea. At the same time, these representations allow insights into conditions and attitudes that are often, while being just self-understood for Koreans, quite alien to non-Koreans. The lecture shall be strongly based on close reading (Korean original and English translation in parallel) and will not simply use fiction as a starting point before proceeding to a presumed safer ground of hard facts. After all, these widely read stories not only represent and mirror reality but also influence(d) Korean perceptions of reality and in the end constitute important realities in their own right.

1. Korean neoliberalism. Park Min-gyu (Yakureuteu ajumma / Yakult Lady); Cheon Myeong-kwan (Toegeun / Homecoming). 2. Damunhwa munhak – Multiculture literature. Kim Yeon-su (Modu-ege bokdoen saehae / Happy New Year to Everyone); Park Min-gyu (A, haseyo pellikeon / Say Ah, Pelican). 3. Conflicts stemming from the bipolarity of the Korean labor market. Chang Kangmyeong (Albasaeng jareugi / Fired); Park Min-gyu (Gomaweo, gwayeon neoguriya / Raccoon World). 4. Korea‘s new role in relation to less developed countries. Park Min-gyu (Headlock); Park Hyoung-su (Arpan).