The Kims on Literature
Duties of Literature and Arts in Our Revolution by
Collection of speeches and excerpts of talks given between May 42, 1946 and Feb. 2, 1970. (Note: the book On Revolutionary Literature and the Arts, HX 415.6 A6 K482, contains a number of the same items but with different English translations and excerpt lengths.)
Call Number: HX 415.6 A6 K48Publication Date: 1972 (Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House)
Education, Literature and Art Should Contribute to Equipping People with a Revolutionary World Outlook by
"Speech at a Consultative Meeting of Workers in Science, Education, Literature and Art, February 17, 1970."
Call Number: Pamphlet HX Korea 11 (in Library Annex)Publication Date: 1973 (Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House)
Life and Literature by
A separately published selection from his "Theory of Cinematic Art." Advises on how to construct plots and scenes; proper word use, mood, themes, and "clearly demonstrate the process by which a revolutionary outlook on the world is established."
Call Number: NX 584.7 A1 K52x 1986Publication Date: 1986 (Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House)
North Korean Literature -- Background
To find more items on North Korean literature, try a subject search for Korean fiction > Korea (North) or Korea (North) > Fiction.
Soldiers on the Cultural Front: Developments in the Early History of North Korean Literature and Literary Policy by Call Number: PL998.K7 G33 2010Publication Date: 2010 (Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press : Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawaiʻi, )In 1946 Kim Il Sung described the country's writers as "soldiers on the cultural front." The Soviet cultural impact brought new tropes, artistic images, and rhetoric, which were quickly absorbed into the North Korean discourse. [This book] traces the introduction and development of Soviet-organized conventions in North Korean literary propaganda and investigates why the "romance with Moscow" was destined to be short lived.- Modern Korean Literature and Han Sor-ya, North Korea by Yi Ki-yong is one of the writers who went to the North after WWII but had already established a literary legacy. (Library has several of his works). This is a translation of his article originally appearing in Nodong Sinmun, Aug. 27, 1960.Call Number: PL 959 H3 Z6 1960+Publication Date: 1960 (Washington : Library of Congress, Photoduplication Service)
Han Sorya and North Korean Literature: the Failure of a Socialist Realism in the DPRK by Call Number: PL 959 H3 Z75 1994Publication Date: 1994 ( Ithaca, N.Y. : East Asia Program, Cornell University)This study of North Korean literary history deals with the crucial role played by Han Sorya, chairman of the D.P.R.K.'s Federation of Literature and Art from 1948 to his purge in 1962, and a well-known writer of fiction. He was instrumental in devising the iconography of Kim Il Sung's personality cult and in defining the early course of North Korean letters. The appendix includes a complete translation of Sorya's 1951 novella "Jackals" ("Sungnyangi,"= Wolves in N.K translation)
North Korean Graphic Novels: Seduction of the Innocent? by Call Number: PN6790.K5 P48 2019Publication Date: 2019 (London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group)"Graphic novels (Kurimchaek) are a major art form in North Korea, produced by agents of the regime to set out its vision in a range of important areas. This book provides an analysis of graphic novels, discussing the ideals they promote...Themes include the ideal family; tensions within the family, patriotism, and its conflict with class identities; the portrayal of the Korean War and the subsequent, continuing stand-off." includes black and white reproductions of samples from graphic novels.
Rewriting Revolution: Women, Sexuality and Memory in North Korean Fiction by Call Number: PL957.5.W65 K55 2018Publication Date: 2018 (Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press)Immanuel Kim's book offers a more complex portrayal of literature in the North based on writings from the 1960's to the present. In some novels and stories, he finds, the path to becoming a revolutionary hero or heroine is no longer a simple matter of formulaic plot progression; instead it is challenged, disrupted, and questioned by individual desires, decisions, doubts, and imaginations. Fiction in the 1980s in particular exhibits refreshing story lines and deeper character development along with creative approaches to delineating women, sexuality, and the family. These changes are so striking that they have ushered in what Kim calls a Golden Age of North Korean fiction.- 북한 문학 은 없다 / Pukhan munhak ŭn ŏpta -- Understanding of North Josun literature byCall Number: PL997.A26 P8533 2019Publication Date: 2019 (Sŏul T'ŭkpyŏlsi : Kyŏngjin Ch'ulp'an)Print book, in Korean, on North Korean literature.
- North Korean Literature in English"This site was created to increase awareness and understanding of North Korean state-produced fiction.." Links to translated excerpts from and summaries of short fiction.
- The Conversation: Inside North Korea's Fiction FactoryArticle on state-produced fiction in literary journals distributed around the country. Web site includes links to projects and examples of fiction, including a story featuring Kim Jong Un.
- LTI Korea Library(Literary Translation Institute of Korea) This is the Digital Library of Korean Literature. On the home page there is a link in the Archive to an annual list Korean writers, which includes many who stayed in or went to the North after WWII ended Japanese colonial rule.
Literary magazines
Chosŏn Munhak 조선 문학 by
North Korean literary magazine. Earlier issues 1955-1969, 1971, 1975 on Asia microfilm 12547
Call Number: +PL 997 A2 C47Publication Date: Library has 1992-1997; 3003-2009
T'ongil Munhak 통일문학 by
North Korean literary magazine.
Call Number: PL 997 K62 T66Publication Date: Library has no. 57-58, 60-75 (2003-2007)
Poetry
The Red Years: Forbidden Poems from Inside North Korea by
Known only by his pen name, the poet and author Bandi stands as one of the most distinctive and original dissident writers to emerge from the country, and his work is all the more striking for the fact that he continues to reside in North Korea, writing in secret, with his work smuggled out of the country by supporters and relatives. As he did in his first work The Accusation, Bandi here gives us a rare glimpse into everyday life and survival in North Korea.
Call Number: PL994.627 .A2 2019Publication Date: 2019 (London, UK : Zed Books Ltd)
Pukhansi ŭi Sachŏk Chŏn'gae Kwajŏng 북한시 의 사적 전개 과정 by
Subtitle: "Historical development of North Korean poetry"
Bibliographic references included.
Call Number: PL 997 A25 O2Publication Date: 2010 (Soul T'ukpyolsi: Kyongjin)
Pukhan Hyŏndaesi Sa 북한현대시사 by
North Korean poets and poetry of the 20th century
Call Number: PL 997 A25 K56Publication Date: 2004 (Soul: T'aehaksa)
Kyŏul pam ŭi P'yŏngyang 겨울 밤 의 평양 by
Collection of poetry arranged chronologically starting with 1945.
Call Number: PL 997 A26 K96Publication Date: 2012 (Soul-si: Kukhak Charyowan)
Cho Un p'yŏngjŏn 조 운 평전 by
Biography and poetry of North Korean poet Cho Un, born in South Korea in 1900, emigrated to the North in 1948. In the 1950's accusations were made against him and he was "repatriated" at a farm work-camp. No one had knowledge of him by the 1960's except that he was heard to still be alive.
Call Number: PL 992.17 U515 Z556 2012Publication Date: 2012 (Soul-si: P'urun Sasang)
Mt. Paekdu: an Epic Poem by
(English translation of Paektusan.) Cho Gi Chon, born in 1913, killed 1951 during Korean War. Journalist for Choson Sinmun, Vice-Chairman of Central Committee of the General Federation on Unions of Literature and Art of Korea. This 1947 patriotic epic poem describes Kim Il-Sung and the anti-Japanese Battle of Pochonbo in 1937.
Korean original, PL 992.17 K5 P3 2012 (in Asia stacks)
Call Number: PL 992.17 K5 P2 1990 (in Library Annex)Publication Date: 1990 (Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang)
Fiction in Korean
고향 / Kohyang by
"Yi Ki-yŏng burst into the North Korean literary scene in 1945 as a well-known writer in the Korean Proletarian Art Federation (KAPF) and later came to be revered as the “founding father of Korean proletarian literature.” His pre-1945 works were continually republished and celebrated as the earliest example of socialist realism in Korean literature." (Tatiana Gabroussenko). Kohyang (Homeland) was originally published in 1933.
Call Number: PL 972.4 H36x 1995 vol.9Publication Date: 1995 (Sŏul Tʻŭkpyŏlsi : Tonga Chʻulpʻansa)
Pukhan Munhak Sajŏn 北韓文學事典 by
Subtitle :" tʻongil munhaksa chŏngnip ŭl wihan kwaje 통일 문학사 정립 을 위한 과제"
Dictionary and bibliography of North Korean literature
Call Number: REF PL 951.6 Y51x 1995 (located in Kroch Asia reading room)Publication Date: 1995 (Soul-si: Kukhak Charyowon)
비 오는 길 / Pi onŭn kil = Walking in the Rain by
Ch'oe Myong-ik was born in Pyongyang in 1902, studied in Japan, then returned to Pyongyang, writing essays and literary criticism. In 1936 his story "Walking in the Rain" brought him to the attention of literary groups in Seoul. He remained in Pyongyang, continuing to write; his works are being now translated and reprinted. This edition has side-by-side Korean and English. It depicts life in 1930's Pyongyang through the chance relationship of Pyongil, an impoverished clerk walking to work through slums to a new factory district, and a studio photographer who" espouses the ideals of a rising bourgeoisie."
Call Number: PL 991.18 M9 P5613 2015Publication Date: 2015 (Sŏul T'ŭkpyŏlsi : Asia Publishers
Kobal 고발 by
Short stories about life in North Korea; author got them smuggled into South Korea to be published.
Call Number: PL 994.627 A6Publication Date: 2014 (Soul: Cho Kap-che Tatk'orn)
Paektusan ŭi nun 백두산의 눈 by
Title roughly translates as "Snow back to mountain." Stories.
Call Number: PL 997 K62 K46 1993Publication Date: 1993 (Pyongyang: Munhak Yesul Chonghap Ch'ulp'ansa)
Yi Chʻun-pʻung chŏn 리 춘풍 전 by
Popular 19th cen. anonymous novel, a satire criticizing society of that time, rewritten and published originally in Pyongyang in 1985.
Call Number: PL 997 K62 Y48 1999Publication Date: 1999 (Soul: Han'guk Munhwasa)
Chang Kil-san 장 길산 by
Popular historical novel serialized in the daily papers both North and South Korea from 1974-1984, Hwang Sok-yong was "Korea's most recognized and renowned author," winner of many literary prizes, "a writer and champion of the people." [from The Guest]
Call Number: PL 992.29 S6 C436x 1995Publication Date: 1995 (Soul: Ch'angjak kwa Pip'yongsa)
달밤 / Talpam by
Author was a well-known short story writer, moving to the North in 1946. This reprint of Talpam (Idiot's Delight, 1933) has English and Korean versions of the text.
Call Number: PL 991.9 T3 T5313 2015Publication Date: 2015 (Sŏul T'ŭkpyŏlsi : Asia)
황진이 / Hwang Chin-i by
This novel by North Korean writer Hong Seok-yung won South Korea's 2004 Mansudae Literary Prize
Call Number: PL 992.28 S575 H85 2004 (2 vols)Publication Date: 2004 (Sŏul-si : Taehun Datkʻŏm)
Fiction in English
Dust and Other Stories by
Yi T'aejun was one of twentieth-century Korea's true masters of the short story--and a man who in 1946 stunned his contemporaries by moving to the Soviet-occupied northern zone of his country. In South Korea, where he is known today as "one who went north," Yi's work was banned until 1988. His momentous decision did not lead him to a safe haven, however: though initially welcomed into the literary establishment, North Korea sent him into internal exile in the 1950s, and little is known of his fate. Dust and Other Stories offers a selection of Yi's stories across time and place, showcasing a superb stylist caught up in the midst of his era's most urgent ideological and aesthetic divides. This collection unites his earlier modernist masterpieces from the colonial era with his little-known work penned during North Korea's founding years, offering a rare glimpse into the making--and crossing--of the border between south and north.
Call Number: PL 991.0 T3 A2 2018Publication Date: 2018 ( New York : Columbia University Press)
The Accusation by
"A collection of searing and heart-wrenching stories by an anonymous North Korean writer who is still living in the country, The Accusation was secretly brought to South Korea in order to be published there and abroad. Seventeen publishers around the world are now preparing editions. ... the seven stories that make up The Accusation give voice to the people living under this most bizarre and horrifying of dictatorships
Call Number: PL 994.118 B36 A2 2017Publication Date: 2017 ( New York : Grove Press)
Your Republic Is Calling You [Pitŭi Cheguk] by
One single day in the life of Gi-yeong, a North Korean spy who has been living in the South twenty-one years, married with a young daughter. After not hearing from Pyongyang in 10 years, he receives an e-mail telling him he has one day to return to headquarters. "Why is he being called back now? Is this message really from Pyongyang? Is he returning to receive new orders or to be executed for a lack of diligence? Has someone in the South discovered his secret identity? Is this a trap?" His wife doesn't know his true identity -- until this day.
Call Number: PL 992.415 Y5863 P5813Publication Date: 2010 (Boston: Mariner Books)
The Orphan Master's Son by
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and numerous literary awards. The Orphan Master's son is "an epic novel" about Pak Jun Do, son of a lost mother (a singer "stolen" to Pyongyang) and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There Pak Jun Do is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. He eventually escapes from the camp and comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and becomes a professional kidnapper, sneaking into Japan to capture an actress and to find thousands of DVD's for Kim Jong-Il. Pak Jun Do takes on the role of a murdered army general (no one dares question this), in an attempt to save the general's wife, the actress Sun Moon, and her two children. "The Orphan Master's Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love"
Call Number: PS 3610 O3 O76 2012Publication Date: 2012 (New York: Random House)
The Ginseng Hunter by
"Set at the turn of the twenty-first century in China along the Tumen River, which separates northeast China and North Korea,The Ginseng Hunter is an unforgettable portrait of life along a fragile border. A Chinese ginseng hunter lives alone in the valley and spends his days up in the mountains looking for ginseng and preparing for winter. He is scarcely aware of the larger world until shadowy figures hiding in the fields, bodies floating in the river, and rumors of thievery and murder begin to intrude on his cherished solitude. On one of his monthly trips to Yanji, where he buys supplies and visits a brothel, he meets a young North Korean prostitute. Through her vivid tales, the tragedy occurring across the river unfolds, and over the course of the year the hunter unnervingly discovers that the fates of the young woman and four others rest in his hands. Spare, intimate, and strikingly atmospheric, The Ginseng Hunter.... confirms Jeff Talarigo's immense gift for storytelling. The Ginseng Hunter is based on actual events happening in North Korea today".
Call Number: PS 3620 A525 G56 2008Publication Date: 2008 (New York: Nan A. Talese)
Jia: a Novel of North Korea by
"The first novel about present-day North Korea to be published in the West. "Jia" is about orphaned young woman, a good dancer but from a politically suspect family. Her father, a science teacher, questions government intrusion and is taken away by police. Jia must leave the village, making her way to Shenyang in northeast China. She falls in love with a soldier, befriends beggars, is kidnapped, beaten, and sold, and negotiates Chinese culture... "
Call Number: PS 3611 I4545 J53 2007Publication Date: 2007 (San Francisco: Cleis Press)
The Guest [Sonnim] by
Translation of "Sonnim " (PL 992.29 S6 S6612 2012). During the Korean War, Kangbyon (Hwanghae Province) in North Korea was the setting of a fifty-two day massacre attributed to the U.S. Army by the North and to oppressed anti-Communists by the South. "The guest" is the horror escalating to a massacre; "the guest" is devastating smallpox from the West; "the guest" is Ryu Yosop, a minister living in America 40 years and returning home, where his now-dead older brother once played a role in the massacre. [description in book]
Call Number: PL 992.29 S6 S6613 2007Publication Date: 2007 (New York: Seven Stories Press)
Immortal History: the Year 1932 by
Translation of Pulmyŏl ŭi yŏksa. 627 page "cycle of novels" about Comrade General Kum Song [Kim Il-Sung]. the fight against the Japanese and founding of the Anti-Japanese Guerilla Party.
Call Number: PL993.C55 P9 1977Publication Date: 1977 (Pyongyang : Foreign Languages Pub. House,)
How I Became a North Korean by
"Lee takes us into urgent and emotional novelistic terrain: the desperate and tenuous realms defectors are forced to inhabit after escaping North Korea." ... {Three teens of very different backgrounds] converge when they flee their homes, finding themselves in a small Chinese town just across the river from North Korea. As they fight to survive in a place where danger seems to close in on all sides,.. they come to form a kind of adoptive family. A FINALIST FOR THE 2016 CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal ...
Call Number: PS3612.E3446 H69 2016Publication Date: 2016 (New York, New York : Viking)
A Corpse in the Koryo by
Author James Church was a decades-long intelligence officer. His creation, Inspector O of the Pyongyang Police, is the grandson of a national hero of the revolution and brother of a high-ranking government official. In this first book of a series, O is given an unusual assignment to go to a certain road at dawn and take a picture of a certain vehicle. As the case escalates he comes to realize he has been led ... into a maelstrom of betrayal and death.
Call Number: PS 3603 H88 C67 2006Publication Date: 2006 (New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martins' Minotaur)
Rat Fire: Korean Stories from the Japanese Empire by
This volume brings together twelve short stories by colonial Korean proletarian writers, as well as two works written in 1946 under U.S. military occupation. Included are stories by writers who became part of the North Korean literary scene: Rat Fire (Sohwa) by Yi Ki-yong is one of the stories.
Call Number: PL972.6 .R38 2013Publication Date: 2013 ( Ithaca, New York : East Asia Program, Cornell University)
Literature from the "Axis of Evil": Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Other Enemy Nations by
[This book] was the subject of a full-length segment on Morning Edition when it first appeared in hardcover...and the Bloomsbury Review named it a "book of the year." In thirty-five works of fiction and poetry, four of them are from North Korea: Kang Kwi-mi, Lim Hwa-won, Byungu Chon, and Hong Seo-jung whose novel Hwangjini won the 2004 Manhae Literary Prize.
Call Number: PN 9014 L5845 2006 (in Olin Library)Publication Date: 2006 ( New York : New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton)
