Han Yong-un & Yi Kwang-su: Two Pioneers of Modern Korean Literature

"No other modern Korean writers living under Japanese rule (1910-1945) experienced the history of their country more intimately and intensely than did Han Yong-un and Yi Kwang-su, for they were more than writers. Han was an eminent Buddhist monk, and Yi was an equally prominent national leader. Their careers crossed often, involving politics, journalism, literature, and religion. And yet they lived a world apart, pursuing opposite paths. Han was revered for his fierce commitment to Korean independence and his single volume of poems, The Silence of My Beloved. Yi, despite all his contributions to the development of modern Korean literature, particularly his first novel Heartless, has been branded a traitor for his collaboration with the Japanese. Even during their lifetimes both attained a mythical status and have since become legends of modern Korea." "In this first book-length study of Han and Yi in English, Beongcheon Yu seeks to demythify them and reassess their achievements as writers. He surveys their careers, reviewing significant events and patterns in their lives, and then confronts their literary works, weighing whatever permanence they may claim. Yu's introduction provides a historical background of modern Korea, and his conclusion brings Han and Yi together, pairing them as has never been done, in an attempt to understand them more clearly as men and as writers." "As is evident in their biographical sketches, Han and Yi had full careers - so colorful and fascinating that they constantly disrupt our proper critical attention to their writings. Yu, in his deliberate contrast of their literary achievements, provides a study of these two highly influential men that is informative and stimulating to general readers and at the same time provocative and challenging to specialists."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved