Lyrical Translation is a literary history of modern Korean poetry’s origins and its development through translation. As the use of Korean became increasingly restricted during the Japanese occupation, translation was not a choice but a necessity for higher education and intellectual labor. Yet it also had an expansive, creative function: Korean poets wielded it as an … [Read More]
Booklist: Modern History
Imperial Entertainers: Korean Women Performers from Military to Global Stages, 1937–75
The book uncovers the untold stories of Korean women performers who navigated successive waves of conflict as cultural laborers in military entertainment, offering insight into the intersection of war, gender, and culture in East Asia. Imperial Entertainers: Korean Women Performers from Military to Global Stages, 1937-1975 uncovers the untold stories of Korean women performers who navigated … [Read More]
Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea
The 1970s and 1980s were pivotal decades in South Korea, marked by rapid industrialization and urbanization. The language of sacrifice was constantly employed by the developmental state to justify its exploitation of workers and violation of countless civil rights as necessary for the nation’s economic growth and security. As a counter to this prevailing rhetoric, … [Read More]
The Sensational Proletarian: Leftist Cultures in Colonial Korea
Starving ghosts, anguished farmers, and grieving mothers. Floating heads, gaunt bodies, and masses of bodily fluids. Such are the visceral sensations, exaggerated affects, and suffering subjects that characterized leftist Korean cultural production in the 1920s and 1930s. In popular fiction, print cartoons, reportage, and other emergent forms of mass culture, scenes detailing the spectacular bodily … [Read More]
Korea: War Without End
A ground-breaking history of this global conflict including the errors and miscalculations made on both sides. Korea: War Without End examines the stand-off between East and West in Korea that ultimately defined the second half of the 20th century. It provides a critical analysis of the lack of preparation by the West for war; the … [Read More]
A Fractured Liberation: Korea under US Occupation
A poignant return to Korea’s forgotten “Asian Spring” — a moment ripe with possibility denied by the postwar US military occupation. When Japanese imperial rule ended in August 1945, the Korean peninsula erupted with hopes that had been bottled up for forty years. New mother Chŏn Sukhŭi marveled at the news, envisioning her son growing … [Read More]
The Routledge Handbook of Early Modern Korea
Korea is a historical region of prominence in the global political economy. Still, a comprehensive overview of its early modern era has yet to receive a book-length treatment in English. Comprising topical chapters written by 22 experts from 11 countries, The Routledge Handbook of Early Modern Korea presents an interdisciplinary survey of Korea’s politics, society, economy, and … [Read More]
Accidental Tyrant: The Life of Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung was the enigmatic architect of North Korea. His life is an extraordinary tale of improbable success: once a barely educated guerrilla fighter, he rose to lead the nation at the young age of 33. Against all odds, he established a horrifyingly stable dictatorial regime, one that still struggles to provide for its people, … [Read More]
Art, War, and Exile in Modern Korea: Rethinking the Life and Work of Lee Qoede
This book celebrates the life and works of Lee Qoede (1913–1965), who focused on art’s social purpose and representation of civilians. He believed “art must be an integral part of the struggle in reality. It cannot simply be a still-life of apples, flowers, or scenery.” Born in South Korea, he was a prisoner of war, … [Read More]
Cinema under National Reconstruction: State Censorship and South Korea’s Cold War Film Culture
Cinema under National Reconstruction calls for a revisionist understanding of state film censorship during successive Cold War military regimes in South Korea (1961–1988). Drawing upon primary documents from the Korean Film Archive’s digitized database and framing South Korean film censorship from a transnational perspective, Hye Seung Chung makes the case that, while political oppression/repression existed inside … [Read More]
Contemporary Korean Art: New Directions since the 1960s
Presents new and thematic interpretations of contemporary Korean art. Presenting fresh and thematic interpretations, this book showcases a collection of the most visually captivating, socially intriguing and often overlooked examples of Korean art. Set against the backdrop of a tumultuous history, artists in Korea embarked on explorations of themselves, society and the profound forces shaping … [Read More]
Tiger Season
An American soldier’s life spirals out of control after he makes a fateful discovery on the Korean DMZ and then falls in love with a beautiful brothel courtesan whose tragic past becomes entwined in a volatile confrontation with Communist North Korea. It’s the 1960s, the Vietnam conflict is raging, and a delicate Korean armistice threatens … [Read More]
Border of Water and Ice: The Yalu River and Japan’s Empire in Korea and Manchuria
Border of Water and Ice explores the significance of the Yalu River as a strategic border between Korea and Manchuria (Northeast China) during a period of Japanese imperial expansion into the region. The Yalu’s seasonal patterns of freezing, thawing, and flooding shaped colonial efforts to control who and what could cross the border. Joseph A. Seeley shows … [Read More]
No Rules Tonight
From the creators of Banned Book Club comes a young adult graphic novel about unveiling secrets, confessing your crushes, and finding yourself: all in the mountains of South Korea on Christmas Eve. It’s time for the annual winter camp at Anjeon University. A full weekend, deep in the mountains, with no parental supervision. But this is no … [Read More]
Politics of Public Opinion: Local Councils and People’s Assemblies in Korea, 1567–1894
Eugene Y. Park’s annotated translation of a long-awaited book by Kim Ingeol introduces Anglophone readers to a path-breaking scholarship on the widening social base of political actors who shaped “public opinion” (kongnon) in early modern Korea. Initially limited to high officials, the articulators of public opinion as the state and elites recognized grew in number … [Read More]
The Emergence of the Korean Art Collector and the Korean Art Market
Articulating the shifting interests in Korean art and offering new ways of conceiving the biases that initiated and impacted its collecting, this book traces the rise of the modern Korean art market from its formative period in the 1870s through to its peak and subsequent decline in the 1930s. The discussion centres on the collecting … [Read More]