Mujong (The Heartless)
Yi Kwang-su and Modern Korean Literature
- 444 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Yi Kwang-su (1892–1950) was one of the pioneers of modern Korean literature. When the serialization of Mujong (The Heartless) began in 1917, it was an immediate sensation, and it occupies a prominent place in the Korean literary canon.
The Heartless is the story of a love triangle among three youths during the Japanese occupation. Yi HyÅng-sik is a young man in his mid-twenties who is teaching English at a middle school in Seoul. Brilliant but also shy and indecisive, he is torn between two women. Kim SÅn-hyÅng is from a wealthy Christian family; she has just graduated from a modern, Western-style school and is planning on continuing her studies in the United States. Pak YÅng-ch'ae is a musically gifted young woman who was raised in a traditional Confucian manner; due to family misfortune, she has become a kisaeng but remains devoted to HyÅng-sik whom she knew as a child.
The Heartless goes beyond the level of romantic melodrama and uses these characters to depict Korea's struggles with modern culture and national identity. A long critical introduction discusses Yi Kwang-su's life and work from his birth in 1892 to the publication of his first novel The Heartless in 1917. It contains in-depth analyses of the novel, Yi Kwang-su's literary theory, and early short stories.
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Information
Table of contents
- Half-Title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments vii-viii
- Introduction 1-76
- A Biography of Yi Kwang-su 5-21
- Korean Literature from the Late Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Centuries 21-25
- Language and Korean Literature 25-29
- Yi's Early Writings and Literary Thought 29-56
- Mujong 56-74
- Plate 1
- Plate 2
- Half-Title Page II : The Heartless
- Note on Translation
- The Heartless 77-348
- Bibliography 349-371
- Index 373-375
- Cornell East Asia Series