Since the purpose of this essay is to observe trends and issues in Korean novels of the eighties from the viewpoint of literary history, the category should be clearly defined. First of all, there is a basic problem whether or not literary characteristics should be classified by chronological divisions. Such chronological categorization may be misunderstood by people who are now annoyed by the coined phrase "the writers of the seventies" as a plot to stir up a certain commercial fashion. The term "the writers of the seventies" as a plot to stir up a certain commercial fashion. The term "the Korean novel in the eighties" in this essay should be understood in this context: "the term 'eighties' is not a periodic concept to simply divide the eighties from the seventies. The realities of the eighties signify gloomy realities that began to fall rapidly with the May 17 Political Crisis that hampered the flowering of democratization in the spring of 1980."
Besides, this essay will definitely distinguish "the writers of the eighties" and "the Korean novel in the eighties", and will discuss issues in view of the latter. In other words, the focus will not be given to the writers who began their literary career or performed conspicuous activities in the eighties as much as to the trends reflected in the literary works created in that period. Aside from this limitation in the method of treatment, it may be too early to make an overall observation of the novel in the eighties, but the writer will go on with the presumption that contemporary sense will prevail in the rest of the decade.
People have criticized repeatedly the decline of fiction in the eighties-not the quantitative lack, but the stagnation of quality. Korean writers kept writing like farmers sowing their seeds in a climate of drought and flood, "... the way on has to continue daily routine activities such as eating and relieving oneself regardless of unbearable pain such as a lover`s betrayal or a parent`s death, making you feel that writers keep writing with the persistence of the man who said, 'The earth still moves.'" It will perhaps provide some consolation in evaluating the Korean novel of the eighties to remember that "poems have been still written and read in spite of Adorno's desperate lamentation, 'How can poems be possibly written after Auschwitz?'" Yi Chae-Hyon says that the main factors in the decline of the novel in the eighties are (1) periodic, situational, literary rupture due to the May Crisis in 1980; (2) lack of time and material background necessary for overall recovery from the aftermath; (3) fiction readers straying away due to diverse publications of social science books, scholarly dissertations, reportages, labor memoirs and private life stories; and (4) refractions caused by the overflow of commercial novels written for the bestseller list.
No one can deny the propriety of citing non-cultural conditions and situations as the cause of the decline of the novel in the eighties. But the ultimate responsibility should fall on the writers as well as the general literary community, especially the critics, whose function is to provide stimulus to writers. The eighties is a particularly important period that liberated and automated the system of introducing new writers. A large number of new writers were born throughout the country by publishing their works in literary coterie magazines, magazine-style books, and regular books, while the publishing community is ambitiously seeking new writers of talent unrelated with existing literary circles. The eighties certainly offers an opportunity to anyone with outstanding talent and courage. (Of course this does not necessarily mean that they are given freedom of speech.) It is true that the novel in the eighties has fallen victim to outside factors and problems concerning the freedom of creative work, but a conscientious writer could not pose before his readers with such self-justification. As I have mentioned earlier, social science and documentary books, that demand as much work and time as any fiction, have seen conspicuous progress, and the literary community itself now should answer the literary community itself now should answer the question why the novel alone is withering and inactive.
Ch`as Kwang-sok, for one, asserts that elements within literary metabolism itself are responsible for the stagnation of the novel in the eighties.
I think the elements within are more important. In fiction, the tendency toward escapism grew more evident in the latter half of the seventies. Regression from In a Strange Land to The Dwarf... means that realism based on factual labor situations has fallen to the confession of a middle-class man with a pang og conscience. And most of the writers who used to actively write novels with popular themes in the early seventies have fled to the genre of popular historical novels.
I believe that is definitely an escape. The popular historical novel is part of the mainstream of our literature... but turning back to popular history at the cost of abandoning the effort to scrutinize reality is merely a circumvented attempt to depict the present reality through an analogy.
Whether one interprets the advent of popular historical novels beginning in the late seventies as an escape as reflected in the above quotation, or accepts it as a deepening of popular awareness, it is recognizable that signs of change and stagnation were present within the literary world. Though from a different viewpoint and perspective, Yi Tong-ha opined that "popular concepts have gradually turned to ambiguous cliche-like abstractions in he ten years since In a Strange Land, while the novel in the seventies saw conspicuous progress when writers placed popular concepts in the center of their imagination," insisting that "most novels in the seventies, with some exceptions like Your Paradise and The Land, are tainted by such prejudice."
In a series of articles like this pointing out inherent problems in the literary works of the latter half of the seventies, we cannot find the explanation for the retardation of the novel in the eighties, but it is undeniable that the novel of the seventies carried out an outstanding role and function under the given circumstances due to aesthetic (or intellectual) awareness in countering reality and the sense of popular unity, while, at the same time, it had its own limitations. The limitations here signify the trends of delusion whereby countering the national reality of the seventies was taken as the mission of literature itself, as well as the fact that literature in the eighties nonchalantly accepted and applied the measures of the seventies in evaluating literary works. The following article is an observation on how to evaluate the seventies to be succeeded by the eighties.
... Since the achievement of the seventies was an outstanding fruition fo the past as well as an exposure of limitations, the novel in the eighties, when observed from a viewpoint different from that of the seventies, can be interpreted as a preparatory groundwork for a rich harvest. The reason why the literary seventies can be a great achievement and simultaneously an exposure of the limitations of fiction (the narrative form in a fallen, non-narrative age) is that it was the highest materialization of the conventional form of fiction (realism and individualism) as well as the preparation for its disintegration-intended transformation, deterioration of the individual person, and possible emergence of collective identity. Presuming the solidification of a wider viewpoint apart from realism and the advent of collective identity may loom up as the structural features of the new novel...
But it is inevitable to evaluate the novel of the eighties still in view of popular truths and realistic sympathy, for there is no conspicuous novel of "collective identity" yet. The novel fascinates many readers in the eighties as it did in the seventies despite various restrictions, while seeking new outlets. Kim T`ae-hyon summarizes the characteristics of the novels in this period as follows;
First, some have the attitude to actvely counter the true aspects of the potential crisis, not content with passively observing the realities of the eighties... Second, some prefer to maintain an objective distance between life and language, defending the general elements and facets of the existing genre of fiction... Third, there is the experimental attitude... Fourth, some seek to induce readers` interest by means of easier language and technique, if possible, for commercial profit and popularity, rather than propagating valuable literary riches.
The basic conflicts and absurdities of the seventies and of the sixties before that, and, again even before that of the period of national liberation and Japanese colonial rule, have not been dissolved in the eighties nor are there the possibilities for any improvement. On the contrary, the phenomenon of extremism intensified, and there was even the trend of wholesale disposal of everything in the seventies under the pretext of aesthetic introspection. A true sublimation of popular aesthetics is possible not on the basis of concession, compromise and prudence, but on the basis of scrutiny of the conflicts and absurdities accompanied by the will and sympathy to overcome them. Therefore, this essay discussing the characteristics and problems of the Korean novel in the eighties will apply the approach of a very conventional methodology-the classification method of themes and fiction techniques.
II. Reflection of the Awareness of national Division
While novels dealing with farmers, laborers and the poor were popular in the seventies, literature testifying to national division and its tragic aftermath apparently dominated the first half of the eighties. Of course that was not an accidental phenomenon. Of course that was not an accidental phenomenon. The diagrammatized viewpoints regarding farmers and laborers as the subject for orthodox realism and nationalistic literature was succeeded by the new horizon of popular literature in the eighties, and when one is asked what is the deepest agony of the masses in to-day`s Korean reality, no one will hesitate to answer that it is the national division.
While literary works in the seventies dealing with farmer-laborer themes particularly magnified the reality only in the south of the Armistice Line, when and if they treated the subject of national division, the literature of national division in the eighties shows a progressive form of true popular literature approaching the national division as the core of the basic conflicts and absurdities of our times. One must for the time being acknowledge that that is the final destination of popular literature if one recognizes the fact that any tragedy involving laborers and farmers in Korea (south of the Demilitarized Zone) has not yet surpassed the anguish, frustration and resentment deriving from national division. Of course national division literature in the eighties has not always displayed positive elements only. There are many instances of writers who technically use the national division as the most convenient means to dramatically depict a desperate agony, and we should not ignore the tendency to return to the period of chaos following the national division as they cannot portray the basic conflicts and absurdities of the present reality. Despite these negative aspects, the novel of the eighties made the conspicuous achievement of attempting popular approaches and expressing the will to overcome the problem of national division.
It was in The Square that the national division was first observed from a popular angle and ideological viewpoint in Korean literature; this was made possible by the April 19 Revolution. The novel is often criticized due to its conclusion of surrender to the national nihilism devoid of the will to overcome the reality of the national division, but it should not be so categorically evaluated if we consider the social conditions of the fifties and the literary standards of the sixties. Besides, Square has been regarded as on of the best works in the field of ideological and critical literature.
Later the national division literature was succeeded by Yi pyong-ju`s Alexandria the Novel, The Folding Fan and The Chiri-san Mountains that portray a special class with firm ideological convictions, or intellectuals who present aspects of the conflicts deriving from national division. Later on, national division lost its ideological hue and was replaced by human anecdotes wallowing in confusion and personal revenge and revenge against revenge by the next generation of writers who experienced the war in their childhood. Except for a few outstanding works by kim Won-il and Yun hung-gil, most national division novels in the seventies by Chon Sang-huk, Yu Chase-yong and other writers tried to understand the national agony on the basis of humanitarianism.
The national division novels of the eighties are gaining a wide national sympathy owing to their sublimation and expansion of all the existing elements to the level of popular literature. Unlike the preceding generations, national division literature in the eighties mostly portrays farmers of petit bourgeois, sincerely seeking dramatic effects through plot development featuring oppression, revenge, and ensuing revenge against the revenge. And many works adopt flashback elements or form when the main character, who is living comfortably in a city, returns to his country home on some occasion, and discovers the tragic incidents of the past hidden for decades.
In most cases when revenge is the cause of conflict, the plot evolves from the explosion of spite suffered by a servant or frustration from unrequited love. It si not a coincidence that there were so many works adopting flashback elements. For a tragedy of the past that has been forgotten in busy everyday life is liable to be revived on the occasion of extreme shock. And this situation is more evident when the memory or experience is not the tragedy of the main character himself but that of another person. (Even the closest family is still "another" person.) Therefore the writers treating national division in their works almost without exception reveal that they cannot completely overcome the background and period of their growing-up. And the generation of actual experience and the generation that has learned through the historical records are represented with obvious differences in their works. For instance, Pak Wan-so, Yi Ho-ch`ol, Yi Chong-ho and other writers who actually experienced the turmoil of national division so severely as to have their youth and life affected drastically by it may lay bare their reactions about its nationalistic justification, and who would dare challenge their testimony? How can anyone try to discuss the aesthetics of fiction writing about truthful confessions of the agonies and sacrifices they went through! The novels containing their testimony of national division are indeed precious records of the experience of the writers themselves that carry the universality of world literature. Of course a novel should always be a novel that should be presented to the reader and evaluated as fiction, but in the case of these writers, their life itself seems to be a literary work that can gain a wide popular sympathy.
In comparison with Yi ho-ch`ol, Yi Chong-ho and Pak Wan-so, the generation directly victimized by the national division, the generation of indirect experience such as Yun Hung-gil and Kim Won-il rather objectifies the tragedy. Already now the pain exists not as deep-rooted remorse but as a memory, and the tragedy of national division remains on the level of fact, not that of emotion. One more generation off, Im Ch`ol-u belongs to the generation that study the tragedy of national division through written records, who seems to recognize the division as an abstracted popular pain instead of approaching the fundamental factors of the tragedy or the historical truth.
The national division theme novels that have a different attitude of approach and basic awareness in different generations are now in the eighties establishing the state of co-existence of all generations. In other words, all the writers from the directly victimized generation down to the generation excavating the old tragedy through records are sincerely working on the problem of national division as an authentic national tragedy. It seems proper to observe the national division literature in the eighties from the following angles, for convenience-(1) the attitude of approaching the national division as an ideological conflict; (2) development of events from atrocities of different social classes, revenge for oppression, and then revenge against revenge; (3) the approach for overcoming national division from the humanitarian viewpoint that man is sacred in all circumstances; (4) the viewpoint focusing on the tribulations of the masses caused by the division itself apart from ideologies; (5) the approach testifying that the saturation of the tragedy of division still continues, old memories relating to present tragedies; and (6) evolution of a new chapter in the division literature of the eighties, It would be recommendable to observe related works in each category individually.
It is not a coincidence that ideology forms the first chapter in discussing division literature. The division literature shows that the naive conclusion asserting there should be no conflicts because we are of the same nation does not work in the Korean situation, acknowledging that one characteristic of the twentieth century is the shift of values from the priority of nation and state to that of ideology, although there are many instances of contradictory ideologies establishing one single state.
Representative ideological division literature prior to the eighties are Choi In-hoon`s The Square, Yi Pyong-ju`s The Chiri-san Moun-tains and Kim Won-il`s The Sunset. While The Square consists of criticism of the ideological reality of North and South Korea by a sceptical liberalist, The Chiri-san Mountains is a criticism of the leftist struggle through the portrayal of an authentic person. The hero of The Square, a sceptic, could live either in the North or the South, but he deserts both to go to a neutral nation; in this case, this fictional premise is possible because that is the only place a true liberalist could choose, as possible survival signifies submission to the petrified order that is in reality to remote from the ideological world the hero is seeking. Yet it is none the less questionable if their observation leaning to one intellectual`s selfish prejudice can by justified in view of the situation that most of the masses were facing in the fifties and the necessity to eliminate national absurdities as a historical phase for development.
In comparison, the characters in The Chiri-san mountains assert distinct ideological preferences. The Chiri-san Mountains can by evaluated as an outstanding attempt to determine the functional relations of national division and ideologies of our times, historic idealism and reality, and individual man and the collective masses, although there is much felt to by desired in fiction aesthetics and technicalities concerning the obvious intentional anti-Communist attitudes here and there in analyzing world history from the set viewpoint of the divided reality of the nation instead of the authentic view of that time. It still remains to be determined how much the author should imbellish the facts while basing his story on historical materials.
Literature seeking ideological themes by the generation of indirect experience vigorously flowered in the eighties after The Sunset. The Sunset`s value can be found in the fact that it changed the limited ideological participation of the intellectuals of the preceding generation into a class ideology. The approach of division reality with class awareness, not with the awareness of social strata, is the most fundamental one but has remained as an unexplored element that nobody has ever attempted to employ. The Sunset reaches a peak in the division literature of the seventies despite its flaw of giving the impression that it offers a fragmentary, not a comprehesnsive view of the realistic national situation because it is structured with episodic elements.
The flowering of ideological division literature in the eighties was heralded by Yi Mun-nyol`s The Age of the Hero, but it lacks authenticity because the basic convictions of the hero are limited to anarchistic thoughts. It probably is due to the writer`s personality in choosing the subject matter that this work is more easily accepted as fiction than as a national reality despite the skilled techniques in structure and development of plot. More can be expected from Kim Won-il`s The Festival of Fire and Cho Chong-nae`s The T`aebaek Mountains in the field of ideological literature because they objectify history more. We cannot expect for some time that the division theme literature fashionable in the eighties will move to the ideological level due to the awarness of an historical situation that cannot be handled by techniques. In that respect. I would have more expectations from senior writers such as Yi Ho-ch`ol as well as Choi In-hoon and Yi Pyong-ju. Whether viewpoint and attitude are those of a liberal or extreme leftist or rightist, our novel does not have to look away from the ideological conflict if that is a historical face we have experienced.
Among the novels of the eighties with a plot of revenge in an outburst of resentment and grief caused by non-ideological conflict are Mun Sun-t`ae`s "The Festival of Royal Azaleas", Cho Chong-nae`s Fireworks and Yi Un-shik`s "The Gloaming". The main characters in these novels are, without exception, conventional farmers who work as slaves. For them history was nothing but the continuation of poverty and sorrow whether in the period of Japanese colonial rule or after national liberation. For these people, who might have finished their lives like that if the Korean War had not broken out, the capsized world offered a miraculous opportunity for personal revenge, and they were not able nor were they in the position to consider the historical impact or reaction which would follow that frenzied fury for revenge, However, in the case of Fireworks or "The Festival of Royal Azaleas", the tribulations of the slaves are so severe that the readers sympathize with them that their revenge is only too justified. But the cruel revenge is followed by a historical reaction that made this "laborer power" escape for a while after the reoccupation by the South Korean forces to begin a new life. Pae Chom-su of Fireworks has become a tycoon, Pak P`an-dol of "The Festival of Royal Azaleas" a local community leader, Chong Man-su of "The Gloaming" an ordinary farmer and each leads a comfortable life. But the buried pst is excavated when the second generation, the son of a murdered victim, now a successful or influential man in most cases, comes to seek out the wrong-doer. At the moment when the justified revenge is about to be executed, the writers seek the commonplace formula of a humanitarian conclusion to avoid the act of vengeance. The stories end with merely digging out the past, Fireworks simply urging for remembrance of past wrong, "The Festival of Royal Azaleas" providing the scapegoat of new facts that the murdered father had committed his own share of wrongs himself too, and "The Gloaming" not providing any ensuing actions whatsoever. What other conclusions are there, after all, for us to reach today! Fiction in a way contains the hope of the masses by seeking generosity, although reality cannot grant this justificable cause.
Another group of literary works dealing with the national division theme that must not be overlooked is the type of novel with the naive humanitarian view that human life is considered valuable in all adverse conditions, and ideology or system cannot come before human life. This type of work represented by Hwang Sun-won`s "Crane" used to form the mainstream of the division literature until the seventies, and this flow is reflected in Im Ch`ol-u`s "With a Kerosene Lamp That Night", Kim Hyang-suk`s "The Calling Voice" and other similar works. Im`s story of the mother waiting for her son gone to the hills to become a partisan and Kim`s story of a woman reminiscing about her husband who died during his leftist struggle, stress that the man himself, a son or a husband, is more important than ideology or system. The native humanitarianism is strongly reflected in this type of work as well shown in the lament, "I`ve gone through all sorts of troubles to raise him... He`s such a precious boy... Oh... I don`t care anything about Reds or Yellows. What the hell are they? I don`t need them. I just want my son back home." Likewise, the son yearns for his home where he lived a comforatable life, and he comes down the mountain only to be killed Therefore he may be criticized for a work that has failed to reach the status of serious division literature as in the earlier cases of Cho Chong-nae, Mun Sun-t`ae and Yi Un-shik; they wre devoted more to the humanitarian view seeking testimony to the truth and humane anecdotes rather than the will to positively solve the national historical agony. The need that division literature should not remain fixed on humanitarianism becomes more convincing in the case of "The Calling Voice". It is doubtful how deeply native humanitarianism can reach the core of the matter of national division complex when the story narrates so unrealistically the fact that such a kind and generous husband changes monstrously once he began to "wear the brassard". In that respect, the literary works of the eighties in that field have not yet surpassed Yun hung-gil`s "Long Rain" in gaining sympathy.
One step forward from the native humanitarianism are the novels testifying to "the history of popular suffering". From the view that the Korean War, under any cause, inevitably had to cause suffering among the masses, literary works in the eighties began to realistically portray the sufferings of the families of the ones who participated in the leftist movement, the families of the rightists and the innocent masses who were neither leftist onr rightist. The literary works in the vein of intense testimony in the seventies of popular suffering such as Hong Song-won`s The South and the North, Hwang Sok-yong`s "The Chronicles of Lady Han", Yi Mun-gu`s Kwanch`on Stories and Yun Hung-gil`s When Will the Rainbow Come have been produced most abundantly in the eighties.
The works depicting popular suffering regardless of ideology include Song Ki-suk`s "White-Robed Boy", Han Sung-won's "The Misguided Bird" and "The Streak of Darkness"; describing the sufferings of the ones who were directly or indirectly involved in the turmoil of the war are Hyon Ki-yong's "Asphalt" and "The Road", O Ch'an-shik's "Mattul", Mun Sun-t'ae's "Dawning Sky", Pak Wan-so's "Mother's Post 2", and Yu Chae-yong's "A Portrait of the Sister"; and the suffering of the family of a leftist is described in Yi Mun-nyol's "The Flaming Memory" and "Though the Time Has Passed". Among them, "Mother's Post 2" is notable in that the background of the story is Seoul. In fact, Seoul has been neglected so far in novels dealing with the turmoil of the Korean War. There may be many reasons why most of the stories have the backdrop of local towns or the countryside, but Seoul, the heart of the national division, should no longer be excluded from the geographical back ground for testifying to popular suffering. Some stories of this type show the tendency of fabricating to dramatically develop the plot, perhaps delighting in treating popular suffering as a fictional subject matter. Of course it is something to welcome for a writer to display his ability to juxtapose elements of interest and testimony to suffering, but it may only increase confusion on the part of readers if the writers veer away from the truth to overly demonstrate skills or to develop the plot for the sake of curiosity.
Now it is time to discuss the works trekking through the aftermath of national division through reminiscence or records by the generation who may be described as "the writers of the eighties". Included in this category are Im Ch'ol-u's "Father's Land", and Hyon Kil-on's "Our Mother", "Our Grandfather", "A Long Time Afterwards", "On the Passing Wind" and "Homecoming". In the case of Hyon Kil-on, it would be better to include him here because he often uses the technique of the eighties (of someone recollecting the pst on a certain occasion) since he started his active literary career in the eighties although he belongs to the older age group of indirect experience.
The stories of this type are the same as the above works in that they remain also on the level of popular suffering and native humanitarianism, but in structural form, the format beginning with an occasion at present to spur retrospection followed by a search for the factual truth and then return to the present shows that they are a model of eighties fiction. Especially, Im Ch'ol-u's approach to the tragic situation through the medium of the grave is considered an excellent technical attempt to overcome the realistic obstacles since this method is based on Korean traditional conventions and folk religion. However, it still is an interesting challenge in this case to accommodate the ideological sturdiness and problems arising from the present system to the aesthetics of fiction writing.
The literary works we have discussed so far are based on the same values in the sense that the native humanitarian view is accompanied by the writer's humanitarian ideology. Almost all the works except ideological novels are created on the basis of these values, and they have to be evaluated inevitably in that respect. We can find some achievement and expectation in the new division literature works in the eighties such as Yi Ho-ch'ol's "Sketching the Three Prototypes and "The Men from the South", Yi Chong-ho's "Moving Wall", Kim Song-dong's "Snowy Night", Yi Un-shik's "The Winter Seed", Kim Yong-hyon's "A Deep River Runs Far", Kim Sang-nyol's "Death in a Strange Land" and Cho Kap-sang's "The Lost Three Days", although these too have the same origin. These works reveal the desire to repent one's original sin caused by national division (in "Death in a Strange Land"), to enlighten those with fixed ideas about the reality of division about the deeper truths (in "A Deep River Runs Far" or "The Lost Three Days") or to see the incident itself without any prejudice from the angle and perspective of the historical situation at the time (in the works by Yi ho-ch'ol, kim Song-dong and Yi Un-shik).
In looking back the division literature of the eighties, we cannot overcome the felling that the view of literature about the national division lags behind that of social science, which si in a sense a neighbor of literature. First of all it is encouraging that unbiased study of both North and South Korea has been attempted recently by a handful of writers such as Yi Chong-ho, Kim Won-il, Yi Mun-nyol and Yu Ik-so, but the easy-going attitude of most writers is only too obvious. The method of presenting a passive or negative character without an ideology for the development of the plot in most cases may be also a result of the easy-going attitude. In other words, the same cliches that the Korean War is a terrible war, that there were cruel revenges and counter-revenges have been repeated over and over again, thus the themes of anti-war literature in a wide sense and the commonplace plots suitable for that category are used time and again.
The problems concerning foreign power and domestic power structures, the popular suffering caused by them, and the will to tide over these elements are not reflected yet in the literary works of the national division theme. Therefore the perspective of national history is also lacking in viewing the korean War. It will be one of the major tasks for future division literature to establish a comprehensive perspective to study the ar in relation to the resistance movement against Japanese colonialism, the April 19 Revolution after that, and the ensuing historic transitions and violent changes such as the June 3 Incident and other later developments.
III. The Refraction of Social Conflict
The novels about farmers, labores and the poor, that were one of the most popular fields of fiction in the seventies, began to fall conspicuously in quantity in the eighties. We cannot deny that this phenomenon provided the logical ground for the claim that the novel is inactive in the eighties.
Perhaps the decade of the eighties in this country is an example of historical cases when deepening conflicts and the maximized absurdities of the times are not properly reflected but refracted in aesthetics. For instance, the man yielding to fickle-minded oppression without even a single word of protest and the incoherent claims represented in O Hyo-jin's "The Operation Goat Rescue" need to be interpreted as a form of fable that appears at a time when literature's function is shackled. There are comparatively many works in the eighties that should be read like fables regardless of the authenticity of the subject matter. The symbols and fable connotations in Song Chong-suk's "I'm Mr. Yi Yong-su‘s Wife", Yu Chae-yong's "Spectator", Chong Chong-myong's "Ringing in the Ear", Chi Yo-ha's "The Clown in Broad Daylight", Cho Se-hui's "Time Travel" and many other stories awaken us to the realities of the power seeking trend and its aftermath of abandoning and indifference to truth, draining of popular awareness, the phenomenon of interpersonal relationship to that of wolf to wolf, and aggravation of the conflicts and confrontations among the different social groups due to all these adverse elements. The most concentric theme of these fable-type stories is the process of corruption and deprivation of humanity by the unjust power. It is very significant, first of all, that we could find consolation in this transformed version of the social novels of the seventies.
But there are not many novels dealing with laborers farmers or the low class in an elevated form of the popular literature for which achievement is pompously claimed in the fields of poetry and criticism. Even Yi Mun-gu, who reached a summit in farmers literature in the seventies has settled down with the episodic series of "Our Village...".
and farmers literature is represented by trite stories that read like so many boring news stories of our society such as Son Ch'un-ik's "The Tulp'o Story" and Kang Sun-shik's "The Butting Bull".
Why is farmers literature in a state of stalemate or withering? Under the circumstances of absurdities heading for extremes and rural problems relating to laborer problems, the literature that used to by classified separately by the subject matter dealing with the farmers until the seventies, should now be elevated and transferred to popular literature. There is the possibility of overly emphasizing the prototype farmer with the selfish character to cling to the ancient desire to own farmland if writers try to portray the stagnant image of a farmer in an isolated state, while, in fact, farmers should be understood in the mutual relation with laborers in this industrialized society where farmers' interest and laborers' interest may coincide. In fact, many of the farmers novels in the past have been faithful in exposing the structural absurdities of the rural communities, but proposed no countermeasures. Of course a novel does not need to take such responsibilities, because that should not be demanded, but at least the proper farmer's image must be presented from the viewpoint of popular history. The farmers novels that prevailed until the seventies mainly shed light on farmland disputes, financial and other sufferings caused by national division and power abuse, and problems resulting from farming policies; these elements still exist in the eighties but we must not ignore the tendency that the farmers are already turning to petit bourgois, although that may not be a suitable choice of word in this case to signify the selfish values cherished by the native people of the small towns. That is one more reason why farmers literature should be elevated to and merge with popular literature, and for that purpose writers should overcome the limitations of rural themes. That is, urban and rural areas, laborers and farmers should not be treated separately, but they should be treated as one subjective entity of history supported by a world view advocating a just mutual interdependency, cooperation and participation between the two.
The dearth of farmers novels naturally results in the stagnation of labor novels. Labor novels, the weak point in the fiction of the eighties, barely survived with such works as Kim Won-il's "The Warm Stone" and kim Song-dong's "Red Button" is pregnant with symbolism as it depicts a hidden part of this society, dramatizing an aspect of the pain suffered by Korean workers abroad.
Owing to the stagnation of labor literature, a new literary genre of documentary won popularity in the eighties. The documentary books that have not yet reached the level of creative novels but stir wider sympathy and emotion, are expected to overwhelm novels for some time to come. Song Ki-won's "The Newcomers" is a good example of the search for an accompanying relationship and unity of laborers and farmers understanding each other's sorrow as the low class people in the novels disregarding difference of occupation or social status, novels that may provide a new horizon for the popular literature of the eighties.
But communal awareness, or popular sympathy, has not ben established in the novel to approach the absurdities of the times because some barriers still exist in the respective themes dealing with farmers, laborers, and the urban poor. Therefore the literature dealing with the urban poor fails to overcome the boundaries of petit bourgois life in the seventies. Pang Yong-ung still creates in the eighties works like "The Roadside Flower" with his long-developed talent of portraying the joys and sorrows of the petit bourgois world, while Pak T'ae-sun, who also is well known for his diverse depictions of urban slum areas in the seventies, produced several works in the vein of "The People of the Apartment Brothel“, and especially noteworthy is his achievements in documentary literature.
The literature testifying for the women working around American military bases, who have been excluded even from the poor, has so far taken the form of a symbolic opposition to the foreign power or a parody of dehumanization, but few novels attempted a direct approach to the deep realities of their life. In that respect, Kang Sok-kyong's "Night and Cradle" and "The Closed Entrance" have the potential to be included as a part of popular literature.
Drilling into the life and reality of the poor is continually attempted by various writers as in Kim Yong-song's "The Diary of a Thief", P'yo Song-hum's "Winter Rain and Hail", Yang Kwi-ja's "Stain" and Chong Kon-yong's "The Drifter" but we can find few works that have reached the elevated level of popular awareness. But we can have some expectations on the technical side, for the description of life and reality, awareness of the poor is much more dramatically and tensely elaborated than that of the seventies. Especially in the case of "Stain", the technique of contrasting the differences of the poor and the rich even in trivial ways of thinking based on a delicate observation should be highly valued.
The life of the petit bourgois, one level up from the poor, was widely introduced by Ch'on Il-nam, Pak Wan-so and other writers in the seventies, and they continue to present refined stories of unique and wide appeal even in the eighties. Pak Wan-so's "You Know, I Know and Heaven Knows", or Ch'oe Il-nam's "Portrait of seoul" is an interesting study of the life and moral collapse of the petit bourgois of our time. Shin Sok-sang's "The Apartment Republic" and Yi Tong-ha's "The Urban Swamp" may be understood from the same angle.
Perhaps because the popular literature without populace. the literature dealing with laborers and farmers was virtually stranded, many novels in the eighties dealt with the agony of intellectuals. Yi Ch'ong-jun, who used to criticize idols and rumors of a generation in The Wall of Rumors and Your Paradise, seriously seeks the answers to the problems of what the intellectuals and artists should do at a time of crisis to tide over the reality, and what is the mission of aesthetics in such circumstances in "The Door of Time". We confront similar questions in Chong So-song's "Sad Homecoming" and Kim Won-u's "Facial Features", most of the writers in this category develop their works with the attitude of indirectly seeking truthful aesthetics, truthful historical aspects, avoiding the direct approach to history as a popular entity.
And one step further away from the reality than these writers, the image of intellectuals accustomed to contemplative and ideological life is presented by Yum hu-myong's works, Ho Yong-song's "A Time in the Life of Mr. So Mu-su the Poet", and So Yong-un's "The Golden Feather". Now the intellectuals become defeatist or escapist, stuffed and preserved in vacuum tubes, whatever the reasons may be, so they have no room to consider popular problems. This image of intellectuals created by a chronically closed society and the long tradition of self-discipline is doubtlessly one of the most common human types around us, but it is a matter to be checked if writers need to repeatedly portray them not from a realistic and critical angle but from a sympathetic one.
In comparison to this past-oriented image of intellectuals, the image of young students shows a far healthier popular element. The students depicted in Hong Song-won's "A part or a Whole" or Im Ch'ol-u's "A Company" and "The Spring Day" have a close affinity with reality. While the image of intellectuals described above constitutes a special facet of the older generation, this image of students constitutes a prototype of the young generation; in this case the difference in their views of reality and history is liable to widen apart, and conclusively, their aesthetic or the methods to overcome realistic conflicts and absurdities are naturally different from one another. Of course there are examples like Yi In-song's Into the Strange Time that presents an unsavory character of a youth. But in this case, we should accept the work as an initiation story.
The popular literature advocated by the novels of the eighties, the decade of extreme conflicts and absurdities, actually retrogressed from its status of the seventies, as we have to admit. The signs are evident that not only novels about farmers, laborers and the poor but also the presentation of intellectuals' anguish and portrayal of youth have sunk down into the conceptual world far from reality. This phenomenon should be interpreted and evaluated as a refracted aesthetical reflection of the Korean situation in the fiction of the eighties. But the phenomenon of this refraction is a transitory one in literary history. something that should not be prolonged and that has value only as a stepping stone toward maturity.
IV. Historical Novels as a Refracted Reality
The historical novel, not written primarily for mass interest but from the perspective of popular literature. has formed a major part of contemporary literature. The historical novel, that serves as a means to seek national identity as well as a shelter for escape during colonial rule when there were many obstacles to treating reality in fiction, still maintains its dual character strongly reflected in the novels of the eighties.
The completion of Hwang Sok-yong's Chang Kil-san, that was started already in the seventies can be valued as a major achievement in the history of nationalistic and popular literature in the history of modern Korean literature, while Kim Chu-yong's The Traders is a monumental work of out times exploring the new field of popular literature. These two epic sagas in the tradition of the Great River, The Tower, Spring and Im Kkok-chong are complete compilations of folk history of one era portraying the life of the people. Especially in the eighties, the historical exploration in fiction to satisfy the rising insing interest in popular history created such works as So Ki-won's The Altar of the Dynasty with the remote historical background of the dynasty with absolute power, Mun Sun-t'ae's The Flaming River, Hyon Ki-yong's The Warbling Bird on the Border, Song Ki-suk's Amt'ae-do Island and Ch'oe Myong-hui's Spiritual Fire.
The Altar of the Dynasty, focusing on the life of Cho Kwang-jo during the "Purge of 1519" shows the interesting development of secret struggles and conspiracies among the ruling groups to seize power, but it remains on the level of literally a historical novel due to the lack of the writer's dedication to the realistic and popular awareness. Unlike the historical novels courting mass popularity, the function of a historical novel in a narrower sense-a novel that portrays the life of an earlier period, such as the bygone feudal period observed from a capitalist period-atruthful popular historical literature should contain a testimony reflecting the true life of the populace as well as the periodic folk history. In that sense, The Land which has not been completed yet, the completed Chang Kil-san, and The Traders are doubtlessly triumphant achievements in the whole in the whole history of modern Korean literature.
The Flaming River portraying popular agony in that respect deals with the struggle for the right of survival of the liberated slaves and the poor farmers after the abolition of slavery in 1886 until the Tonghak Rebellion (1894).
Among recent historical novels, The Warbling Bird on the Border showed a radical attempt in depicting Pang Song-ch'il's uprising. Although this novel, which has organically harmonized historical facts and imagination in presenting the process of the farmers' outrage against exploitation eventually turning to resistance against a foreign power, has the weakness of burdening the readers with a complicated structure and methods of expression, it establishes a ground for winning sympathy with its heavy and solid popular theme.
Amt'ae-do Island is a successful creation of a literary work from a very well known subject owing to the writers's sincere effort to excavate the core of a truthful popular resistance. Song Ki-suk, who has already demonstrated his talent for the rural folk novel in "The Dirge of Tortoise Village", presented a writer's maturity in historical awareness in Amt'ae-do Island, of which subject matter, though taken form historical facts, he delivered with even richer literary flavors than "The Dirge...". But it has to be pointed out that the novels in this category by Hyon Ki-yong, Song Ki-suk and Mun Sunt'ae give the impression of unreasonably developing the characters and situations due to their intentional excessive consideration of popular awareness. I think the best technique for perfect representation of the popular life is ultimately to apply no technique in writer's assimilating to the identity of the populace. The truthful popular image may be damaged if the write indulges too much in the desire to seek interest and resistance due to his own concept of the mass or to satisfy readers' wishes; this possibility will pose a controversy in historical literature's approach to the masses.
Ch'oe Myong-hui's Spiritual Fire, a novel of the history of one family for four generations, should be accepted as a novel of folk morality rather than that of popular history. But its value lies in the effort to contemplate on the interrelations of history, individual man, and a family through the history of a family that has lived through the contemporary and modern history of the country when most violent fluctuations of values were experienced.
V. Alienation of Man, Etc.
The major factors for conflict in modern literature derive from, naturally, the relation of man and society. The angle of observing this relation determines the attitude of the work if it is an expression of the will to overcome realistic absurdities or a conceptual agony and sense of alienation stemming from the introspective scrutiny of humanity. While so-called popular literature has the former inclinations, the novels of contrary tendencies cling to the theme of alienation, the secretion of the agonies created by the contemplation of spiritual man, humanity and social systems.
In Korean literature also, this problem was first presented during the colonial period by Kim Tong-in and Yi Sang in the forms of aestheticism as one of the primary human aspects, intellectual agonies, return to nihilism and labor pains for renovation of conventional values. Taken over by Yi Ch'ongjun and Kim Sung-ok in the seventies, these themes are further elaborated in the eighties.
The search for ethical awareness and essence of life of modern man presented in Yi Mun-nyol's "The Anonymous Island", portrayal of man living in the era of self-disintegration and alienation in Pak Wan-so's "Loss", commonplace determinism of the petit bourgois and spiritual conflicts arising from it in Chon Sang-guk's "Our Wings", sense of alienation among the individual men in Yu Chae-yong's "Relation", a modern life of man as a wanderer and eternal loneliness in Pak Shi-jon's "Counter-Current", alienation between man and society presented by Yi Kyun-yong-they all testify, though their methods and techniques may differ, to the fundamental agonies we cannot avoid in the chasm between man and society created by life of our times.
On the other hand, O Chong-hui scrutinizes the problems of old age in her story "Loneliness" but it is a scrutiny not only of old age but of loneliness that affects all the people of our times. She sharply portrays the relation of society and man's maturity through the study of man's maturing process in many other works.
Yi Sun also wins sympathy from readers through her lyrical portrayals of the social aspects observed by growing boys and girls. This initiation type of work takes similar shape in some of Kang Sok-kyong's works; her stories present the very ordinary but eternal truth that man grows up following the given process of growth regardless of social chaos or turmoil.
So Yong-un is a somewhat different case. Approaching the sense of alienation of modern man lyrically and describing characters leading a blossoming life without any dark shadows, she presents human beings who remind one of the woman's image represented in the classic Sogyong pyolgok. That human image of self-sacrifice, the human image presented in So Yong-un's "Distant Thee" or O Chong-hui's "Winter Crake" may be a prototype of our aboriginal concept of women. The image of woman in Kim Hyang-suk's recent work, "The Light of Winter", should better be accepted in that respect too. Interpretation of that work from the angle of social literature might mislead one into a magnified or schematized conclusion. The works of this group featuring courageous love and self-sacrifice, the qualities we may find from the women of the Koryo dynasty, in the characterization of the women living today in the period of an ethically anarchistic state make us reflect what is the ultimate value of human life and the true reward for man in this egotistic modern world. What is missing in their works is, though, a more thorough scrutiny of how this human image is crushed by the oppression from complex society today.
The theme of human alienation has been, from ancient days to the present, and will continue to be in the future an important literary controversy as long as human beings exist. But works of this type cannot overlook the periodic background for clearer presentation of a human image, and they might end up with an empty human image unless they clarify how the socio-economic elements of the times affect man.
VI. The Direction of Lowbrow Novels
The growth of lowbrow novels was preceded by support of the middle class and oppression on the creative activities of the proper popular literature. Especially in case of Korean literary history, the pro-Japanese anti-nationalistic middle class began to indulge in luxury and hedonism simultaneously with the clear division of the classes in the 1930s, though the class division took a deformed shape under Japanese colonial rule. Therefore lowbrow novels, that came to existence amid this social trend, thrived in three forms of (1) novels covering up the reality under the pretext of enlightening the rural communities, (2) historical novels full of reactionary defeatism, and (3) love stories. (Of course there are positive elements in these novels, but only the negative qualities are stressed here.)
The prototype of the lowbrow novel in the colonial period is still strongly alive these days. The popular novel thrived on the economic basis of export expansion (whatever it may signify) following the socio-political situations of the emergency measures, and those elements affected even the eighties. Considering the economical factor only, the lowbrow novels of the eighties should lag far below that of the seventies. But one characteristic of the lowbrow novels in the eighties is that writers have mastered the deceptive skills of scratching the itchy discontents of the populace, who lack awareness but seek some consolation although they have no clear understanding of realistic absurdities and conflicts. In other words, the writers in the eighties mobilize the middle class and the young generation instead of the farmers, who used to prevail in the lowbrow novels in the thirties, to provide some consolation by skillfully stirring gloomy emotions. Thus the lowbrow novels continued to prosper even in the extreme depression.
There is an opinion that some of these novels in the eighties deserve certain evaluation, but we have to consider the possibility that the lowbrow culture and anti-popular elements, that need to be discarded, might grow because of that part to be evaluated. Of course the orthodox lowbrow novels, the popular novels reflecting the folk life of the times seen from the popular view, should exist, and their creation is a mission given to the writers. only stimulating popular sentiments and paralyzing the function of judging the issues will have no justification whatsoever for existence.
The lowbrow novels of the eighties have shown so much progress in technique and popular appeal that some writers have almost reached the level of pure literature. The mastery of Yi Ch'ong-jun, Ch'oe In-ho, Yi Mun-nyol, Pak Wan-so and other writers even intimates that the term lowbrow novels may soon have to disappear, Regardless of such problems, however, the writer's attitude whether they should use their techniques from the popular perspective or devote themselves to portraying the joys and sorrows of the middle class will remain as an issue for a long time to come.
VII. Conclusion
As we have observed so far, the literary works dealing with farmers, laborers and the low-class people that had prevailed in the seventies have conspicuously decreased both in quantity and quality in the eighties due to non-literary factors. the novels of the eighties show a deeper interest in the surferings of the masses as a whole rather than testifying to the tribulations caused by class divisions. For it is in the eighties that writers most sincerely handled the issue of national division as the core of the suffering
of the whole nation instead of persuing the classrelated sufferings of laborers, farmers and the underprivileged. Of course this decade is still lagging behind the earlier generation in quantitative expansion or in the range and perspective of observing national history, but we can have considerable expectations as this is the generation that can objectively evaluate the past and the Korean War without any prejudice. In that respect we must not ignore the shock wave created by the movement of reuniting separated families.
The fact that the national division literature loomed up as the nucleus of popular literature in the eighties is something desirable for the development of nationalistic and popular literature, and this phenomenon is expected to continue for some time. At any rate, until they can freely write about the transitional chaos of the eighties, at least, there is no stronger theme than that of the popular agony and suffering due to the national division, and no other subject that can easily win national popular sympathy.
The novels dealing with human conflicts and alienation reveal the naked senses as if constructed only with bare elements of technique. Of course technique is a basic requirement of literature, but technique devoid of writer's spirit-the literature in which technique and purpose do not harmonize with each other is a literature that is alienated from man, or from the writer himself, for a manufacturer of fertilizer is not necessarily a good advocate of the farmers. Perhaps technique may assume priority over the writer's spirit in this modern society where electronic skills dominate history. In a way, is it not true that a work that can win popular sympathy through refined techniques of an anti-history writer may be more welcome than a work by a writer of popular awareness who can never gain any response from the masses! Just as a man of commercialism can be more popular among the farmers because he manufactures a fertilizer of superb quality than the farmers' advocate who produces bad fertilizers. An ideal writer would be the writer who creates a work of spiritual struggle with well-balanced writer's spirit and technique. But the novels of the eighties tell us that an ideal is still no more than an ideal.
(The Selected Critiques in the 80's, edited by Kim Pyong-gol and Ch'ae Kwang-sok, Chiyang-sa, 1985.)
NOTES
1. Kim T'ae-hyon, "The Time of Crisis and Commercial Novels", The Age of Literature, Vol. 2, P'ulpit publishing Co., 1984, p. 75.
2. Yom Mu-ung, "To the Editor", Twenty Representative Works in 1980, edited by Yom Mu-ung, Hanjin Publishing Co., 1981, p. 477.
3. Kim Pyong-ik, "The Dream for a Truth", Twenty Representative Works in 1983, edited by Kim Pyong-ik, Hanjin Publishing Co., 1983, p. 477.
4. Yi Chae-hyon, "Novels or Storybooks-prospect for Literature in the Eighites", Soongjun University News, August 15, 1984.
5. "For the Creation of a National Form", a forum, Madang, January , 1984, pp. 280-81.
6. Yi Tong-ha, "The Korean Novel in the Seventies", The Present Status of Korean Literature, edited by Kim Yun-su, Pail Nack-chung, Yom Mu-ung, Ch'angjak-gwa Pip'yong-sa, 1982, pp. 159-60.
7. "Opening the Fouth Generation of Our Literature", The Literature of Our Age, Vol. 4, Munhak-gwa Chisong-sa, 1985, p. 11.
8. Kim T'ae-hyon, op. cit., 76-77.
9. On The Festival of Fire, refer to Yi Tong-ha's "History and Fiction" (The Books of Today, Spring Issue, 1984, Han'gil-sa). The T'aebaek Mountains is currently serialized in Hyondae munhak.
10. "The Festival of Royal Azaleas" is carried in Outcry of Blood (a collection of short stories by Mun Sun-t'ae, Ilwolsogak, 1983). Fireworks was published by Munye Publishing Co. in 1983. "The Gloaming" is carred in The Literature of Life, Vol. 6, (Tongnyok).
11. On Im Ch'ol-u, refer to his collection of short stories, Father's Land (Munhak-gwa Chisongsa, 1984), Kim Sa-in's
12. TheAge of Literature, Vol. 1, P'ulpit Publishing Co., 1983, p. 196.
13. These two writers are more outstanding in the fields other than the national division themes.
14. On Hyon Ki-yong, refer to Ch'ae Kwang-sok, "The Wretched Life and the Desperate Resistance" (Munye chungang, Autumn Issue, 1983) and Yi Chae-hyon's "The Native Spirit and Awareness of History" (The Literature of Our Age, Vol. 4). On "Mattul", refer to Kim Yong-ho's "Historic Fact and Literary Imagination" (The Present Status of Korean Literature III, edited by Paik Nack-chung and Yom Mu-ung).
15. These works deals with the guilt-by-association system. As to the writer, refer to Kim Shit'ae's Literature and Observation of Life (Iu Publishing Co., 1984).
16. O&n Hyon Kil-on, refer to the collection of short stories, The Dream of Yongma (Munhak-gwa Chisong-sa, 1984).
17. Yi Un-shik and Kim Yong-hyon are the most promising new writers writing about the national division theme.
18. On this writer's recent activities, refer to Kim Chong-chtol's "Tragic Experience and Tenacious Life-Yi Mun-gu, the Writer amid the Farmers" (Soongjun University News, dated May23, 1984).
19. Refer to Kim Song-dong's The Lone Hovel (llwolsogak, 1982) and Kim Yun-shik's "The Liturature of the Middle Generation and Its Mode" (Segye-ui munhak, Summer Issue, 1984).
20. The popularity of documentary books was probably ignited by Hwang Sok-yong's The Children of Darkness. Other major achievement afterwards include Chang Nam-su's The Work Taken, Mun Chom-sun's For Eight Labor Hours, Pak Yong-gun's "On the Roof of the Factory", Song Hyo-sun's The Road to Seoul, The Reportage Era by Yi T'ae-ho and others, Song Min-yop's "Actuality or Practice" (Shilch'on munhak, Vol. 5), Yi Hae-ch'an's "Intellectuals amid Masses" (The Present Status of Korean Literature III) and Chtae Kwang-sok's "Life and Death for Tomorrow" (Shilch'on munhak, Vol. 4).
21. Refer to Song Ki-won's Back to Wolmun-ri (Ch'angjak-gwa Piptyong-sa, 1984), Song Min-yop's "Reconciliation in Fiction" (The Books of Today, Summer Issue, 1984) and Hyon Chun-man's "Truth of Life and Impression of Experience" (The Literature of Our Age, Vol. 4).
22. Representative of this is Pak T'ae-sun's The National Territory and the People (Han'gil-sa, 1983).
23. Refer to Kang Sok-kyong's Night and Cradle (Minum-sa, 1983), Kim yong-gu's "Imprisonment and Pushing of Routine Life" (Segye-uimunhak, Summer Issue, 1983) and Chin Hyong-jun's "The Drama Searching for Integrity" (The Literature of Our Age, Vol. 4).
24. Refer to Kim Won-u's collections of short stories, The YoungMan without Personality (Minum-sa, 1981), Learning the Life (Minum-sa, 1983), Yu Yang-son's "The Phenomenon of Stagnation of Fiction and the Way to Overcome It" (Segye-ui munhak, Winter Issue, 1983) and Yi Yun-t'aek's "An Aspect of Fiction as an Observation of the Times" (The Literature of Our Age, Vol. 4).
25. Refer to Yi In-song's Into the Strange Time (Munhak-gwa Chisong-sa, 1983), Song Min-yop's "The Novel of Youth, Its Cultural Significance" (Munye chungang, Summer Issue, 1983) and Hong Chong-son's "Linguistic Awareness and Narrative Methods" (The Literature of Our Age, Vol. 4).
26. Refer to Hwang Kwang-su's "Reproduction of the Past and Completion of the Life in Progress" (The Present Status of Korean Literature II).
27. Refer to Min Hyon-gi's "The Unhappy Life in the Historically Declining Period" (The Present Status of Korean Literature 111). The article also comments on "The Altar of the Dynasty" and "The Spiritual Flame".
28. Refer to Ch'oe Won-shik's "Land, Peace and Bread" (The Logics of Nationalistic Litera- ture) and Kim Pyong-gol's "Farmers and on-the-spot Novel" (The Literature of the PracticalAge, Shilch'on Munhak-sa, 1984).
29. Refer to O Chong-hui, The Childhood Garden (Munhak-gwa Chisong-sa, 1981), The Yearning (Tongso Munhwa-sa, 1983), Kwon Yong-min's "Dreams and Pains of the Contemporaries" (Munhaksasang, December Issue, 1982) and Kim Yong-gu, op. cit.
30. YiSun, OurChildren, Munhak-gwa Chisong-sa.
31. As to the popular novels of the eighties, refer to Kim Chong-ch'ol's "On the Commercial Novels" (The Present Status of Korean Literature II), "The Popular Novels and the Commercial Novels" (The Age of Literature II, P'ulpit Publishing Co).
However, this writer recognizes the importance and necessity of the function of the popular novels as a special form in the historically transitional period. For instance, the "idealistic novels", that was very popular since the pre-Spanish Civil War peiods, established a model of the popular literature that dominated the era despite its non-literary elements. Refer to "A Facet of the Modern History of the Spanish Thoughts: the Anarchistic Popular Literature in the 1930s" (Study of the Spanish Civil War, edited by Takashi Saito, translated by Ti Ho-ung and Yun On-gyun, Hyongsong-sa, 1981).
Novel
In aStrange Land: Kaekchi
The Dwarf. . .: Nanjangi-ga ssoaollin chagun kong
Your Paradise: Tangshind61-uich'on'guk
The Land: T'oji
Alexandria the Novel: Sosol alleksanduria
The Folding Fan: Chwilbuchtae
The Chiri-sanMountain: Chirisan
The Sunset: Noul
The Age of the Hero: Yongung shidae
The Festival of Fire: Pul-ui chejon
The T'aebaekMountains: T'aebaeksanmaek
Fireworks: Puluori
The South and the North: Nam-gwa puk
Kwanch'on Stories: Kwanchton sup'il
The Wall of Rumors: Somun-ui pyok
Into the Strange Time: Natson shigan sok-uro
The Traders: Kaekchu
The Great River: Taeha
Spring: Pom
The Tower: T'ap
The Altar of the Dynasty: Wangjo-ui chedan
The Flamming River: T'aorunun kang
The Warbling Bird on the Border: Pyonbang-e ujinnun sae
Amt'ae-doIsland: Amt'aedo
Spiritual Fire: Honpul
Short Story
"The Festival of Royal Azaleas": Ch'oltchukche
"The Gloaming": Ttangkomi
"Crane": Hak
"With a Kerosene Lamp That Night": Ku pam-e horongpul palk'igo
“The Calling Voice": Purunun sori
"Long Rain": Changma
"The Chronicles of Lady Han": Hanssi yondaegi
"When Will the Rainbow Come": Mujigae-nun onje ttunun'ga
"White-Robed Boy": Paekp'o tongja
"The Misguided Bird": Mimanghanun sae
"The Streak of Darkness": Odum-ui maek
“The Road": Kil
"Dawning Sky": Mimyong-ui hanul
"Mothe's Post 2": Omma-ui malttuk 2
"A Portrait of the Sister": Nunim-ui ch'osang
"The Flamming Memory": T'aorunun ch'uok
"Though the Time Has Passed": Ku sewol-un kado
"Father's Land": Aboji-ui ttang
"Our Mother": Uridul-ui omonim
"Our Grandfather": Uridul-ui chobunim
"A Long Time Afterwards": Mon hunnal
"On the Passing Wind": Chinganun param-e
"Homecoming": Kwihyang
"Sketching the Three Prototypes": Se wonhyong somyo
"The Men from the South": Nam-eso on saramdul
"Moving Wall": Umjiginun pyok
"Snowy Night": Nunonun pam
"The Winter Seed": Kyoul ssiat
"A Deep River Runs Far": Kiptun kang-un molli hurunda
"Death in a Strange Land": Kaeksa
"The Lost Three Days": Sarajin sahul
"The Operation Goat Rescue": Yomso kucht'ul taejakchon
"I'm Mr. Yi Tong-su's Wife": Yi Tong-su-ssi puin-imnida
"Spectator": Kugyongkkun
"Ringing in the Ear": Imyong
"The Clown in Broad Daylight": Paekchu-ui kwangdae
"Time Travel": Shigan yohaeng
"Our Village. . .": Uri Tongne. . .
"The Tulp'o Story": Tulpt'o iyagi
"The Butting Bull": Pusari
"The Warm Stone": Ttattut'an tol
"Red Button": Pulgun tanch'u
"The New comers": Saero on saramdul
"The Roadside Flower": Han'gilka-e p'in kkot
"The People of the Apartment Brothel": Yugwak ap'attu saramdul
"Night and Cradle": Pam-gwa yoram"
"The Closed Entrance": P'yegu
"The Diary of a Thief": Toduk ilgi
"Winter Rain and Hail": Ssarangnun kyoulpi
"Stain": Olluk
"The Drifter": Ttunaegi
"You Know, I Know and Heaven Knows": Chi algo nae algo hanul-i algonman
"Portrait of Seoul": Seoul-ui ch'osang
"The Apartment Republic": Ap'atu konghwagu
"The Urban Swamp": Toshi-uinup
"The Door of Time": Shigan-ui mun
"Sad Homecoming": Sulp'un kwiguk
"Facial Features": Imokkubi
"A Time in the Life of Mr. So Mu-su the Poet' Shiin So Mu-su-ssiui onu sewol
"The Golden Feather": Hwanggum kit'ol
"A Part or a Whole": llbu-wa chonbu
A Company": Tonghaeng
"The Spring Day": Pomnal
"The Dirge of Tortoise Village": Charakkol-uipiga
"The Anonymous Island": Ingmyong-ui som
"Loss": Yushil
"Our Wings": Uridul-ui nalgae
"Relation": Kwan'gye
"Counter-Current": Yongnyu
"Loneliness": Chogyo
"Distant Thee": Mon kudae
"Winter Crake": Kyoul ttumbugi
"The Light of Winter": Kyoul-ui pit
<> Vol.26, No. 7, May 1986.
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