Korea Times
Aug. 10, 2000
For the delight of the students of Korean studies and those who want a better understanding of Korean culture, a brief history of modern Korean literature will soon be released in the CD-ROM format in English.
Published by Seoul National University in collaboration with the Culture and Tourism Ministry and Korea Translation Foundation, the new CD "100 Years of Korean Modern Literature" contains a historical survey of Korean modern literature and information on representative writers and their works, along with a range of related documents and photos. "The new CD-ROM is designed to promote Korean literature overseas and enable foreign scholars of Korean literature to conduct research more effectively by providing them with an overall view and systematic data of modern Korean literature," said SNU Prof. Kwon Young-min, who headed the project.
It is the first time that an English version of a Korean literary encyclopedia will be published, whether in print or digital format. Up until now, efforts to promote Korean literature abroad have been limited to a handful of translations of individual works only.
Originally, the disc was scheduled to come out this month, but the recent controversial amendments to the Romanization system forced the production team to postpone the release in order to revise the text in accordance with the new formula. The completion of the final version is expected to take at least another month.
The contents of the CD-ROM will also be available for free on such Internet sites as textkorea.com and ktf.org.kr from November at the latest.
The English CD-ROM consists of four parts: "Survey of Modern Korean Literature," "Representative Korean Writers," "Representative Korean Literary Works" and "Writers' Gallery." Detailed information on authors, their works and important literary incidents instantly pop up as soon as the related subjects are clicked.
"Survey of Modern Korean Literature" enables readers to grasp the main currents of Korean literature for the past 100 years. The section is divided into three major periods. First, the period of enlightenment, deals with the years between the mid-1800s and early 1900s, an era marked by the dissolution of the feudal Choson society and the introduction of Western civilization. The second focuses on the Japanese occupation of Korea for three decades from 1910, and the third tackles the post-liberation period from the time around the Korean War to the recent age of industrialization. "Representative Korean Writers" offers portraits and biographical data of major Korean writers in the 20th century. Four hundred writers -- 200 poets, 150 novelists and 30 critics -- are introduced with information on their lives and works, along with their pictures.
A third part, "Representative Korean Literature Works," analyzes important literary works, while "Writers' Gallery" features photos of major authors and the early editions of their books.
Unfortunately, the disc is short of North Korean literature of recent times, as it only presents Northern writers known before the Korean War. "It is almost impossible to get the latest publications of North Korean writers, and even those published in the 1950s and 60s, as most of them have gone out of print," said Prof. Kwon.
He expressed his hopes that the imbalance will be corrected in the near future with the progress of inter-Korean relations.
Copyright 2000 KoreaTimes