Epic adventure-satire Whale, written by Cheon Myeong-kwan in 2003 and translated into English by Kim Chi-young, was the South Korean nominee this year (it follows Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny – an anthology of surreal and twisted tales addressing Korea’s patriarchal, capitalist society, nominated in 2022). Like Pachinko, Whale is a multi-generational tale that sheds new light on Korea’s societal transformation in the years following the Korean War; it follows an enterprising woman who leaves home to trade foodstuffs in a port city – who later becomes obsessed with the construction of a cinema shaped like a whale in a fast-modernising rural village. The Booker 2023 judges called it: “a rollercoaster adventure through Korean history and culture… full of magic and humour, profound darkness and struggle, terrible violence and prejudice.”
Other notable recent Korean novels include Cho Nam-joo’s Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 – about a woman who strives to defy restrictive gender roles across her childhood, marriage and motherhood between 1982 and 2016. It sold more than one million copies upon publication in South Korea in 2016, and was seen as a catalyst for the country’s #MeToo movement. Equally compelling is the latest by Hwang Sok-yong – who, in 1993, was sentenced to seven years in prison after travelling to the North to promote exchange between artists. Mater 2-10, released on 11 May in the UK, centres on three generations of a family of rail workers – spanning the Japanese colonial era through to the country’s liberation, right up to the 21st Century.
That such rich, nuanced works have taken a backseat to the status quo-rupturing efforts of dynamic filmmakers and pop stars until now is, perhaps, in line with the wider course of Korean cultural history. Fulton points out that “the oral and performance tradition [of Korean storytelling] developed back in the old kingdoms… there was no Korean alphabet until the 1400s”; and that the written word was largely the providence of “a very few educated men” right up until the modern era. But as this flood of literature (from men and women of all backgrounds) is increasingly acclaimed and available in the West today, perhaps the Korean wave might be turning a page – even as it continues to look to the past.
Hallyu! The Korean Wave is at the V&A until 25 Jun 2023
The Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories is out now
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