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English(English) Article

The Story of a Dwarf Family, the Urban Poor: The Dwarf by Cho Se-Hui | LIST

About the Article

Article
http://list.or.kr/content/story-dwarf-family-urban-poor-dwarf-cho-se-hui
Journal
list_Books from Korea
Issued Date
-
Page
-
Language
English(English)
Country
SOUTH KOREA
City
Seoul
Book
The Dwarf
Writer
Cho Sehee
Translator
Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton

About the Author

  • Cho Se-hee
  • Birth : 1942 ~ -
  • Occupation : Novelist
  • First Name : Sehee
  • Family Name : Cho
  • Korean Name : 조세희
  • ISNI : 000000007978395X
  • Works : 26
Descriptions - 1 Languages
  • English(English)

The Story of a Dwarf Family, the Urban Poor: The Dwarf by Cho Se-Hui   By Shin Soojeong on Nov 02 2014 00:56:21 Vol.2 Winter 2008   The Dwarf Cho Se-Hui Bruce Fulton , Ju-Chan Fulton University of Hawai'i Press 2006 224pp. ISBN 978-0824831011     It was in December of 1975 when the short story “Knifeblade,” the first in the collection titled The Dwarf, was published. The mythology surrounding this collection of short stories reached its peak the following year, with successive publications of “The Möbius Strip,” “Space Travel,” and “A Dwarf Launches a Little Ball.” The collection consists of 12 short stories, of which the shortest comes to no more than some 40 pages in a 200 manuscript page collection. Even longer versions of the collection come to no more than 250 manuscript pages, and can be considered as the launch into an official career by Cho Se-Hui, who had remained silent for over a decade since his debut in 1965. Through his words, the history of Korean literature was finally able to integrate Korea with the shadowy aspects of its society, a result of the developmental dictatorship in the 1970s. The dwarf in this book is a physically handicapped man, 117 centimeters tall (about 4 feet), and weighing 32 kilograms (about 70 pounds). He is not just handicapped, however. His family, consisting of his wife and three children, represents the working class of Korean society in the 1970s, who at the time, were oppressed and marginalized in the structure of production, consumption, and distribution. In contrast to this group was the giant, a group of financial conglomerates represented by the Eungang Group and the capitalists with whom they work. Other groups do exist, such as the lower middle class and conscientious intellectuals, represented by Sin-ae and Ji-seop. However, the collection more acutely focuses mostly on the conflict between laborers and capitalists, and the haves and the have-nots. They exist in different worlds, living lives that can never be reconciled. They exploit, and are exploited, which is the method of their conflicting existence. Would reconciliation and coexistence of the two groups ever be possible? This is the very theme of The Dwarf. The realization of love, based on freedom and equality, is the link joining the short stories in the collection. Share. Twitter Facebook Google Email .

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