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English(English) E-Book

Seopyeonje

About the E-Books

Seopyeonje View online (E-PUB)
OverDrive E-book (Member Login)
Author
YI CHUNG-JUN
Co-Author
-
Translator
Kim Ok-Young
Publisher
Peter Owen
Published Year
2013
Country
UNITED KINGDOM
Classification

KDC구분 > literature > Korean Literature > Korean Fiction > 20th century > 1945-1999

Original Title
서편제
Romanization of Original
Seopyeonje
Original Language

Korean(한국어)

ISBN
9780720614992
Page
-
File Size
1004
Series
OVERDRIVE READ

About the Author

Writer default image
  • Yi Chong-Jun
  • Birth : 1939 ~ 2008
  • Occupation : Novelist
  • First Name : Chong-Jun
  • Family Name : Yi
  • Korean Name : 이청준
  • ISNI : 0000000453018634
  • Works : 67
About the Original Work
서편제
  • 서편제
  • Author : Yi Chong-Jun
  • Published Year : 1993
  • English Title : Seopyeonje
More About the Original Work
Descriptions -
  • English(English)

Yi Chung-jun's haunting and disturbing novel Seopyeonje is set in the 1950s after the Korean War in the remote south of the country, home of the traditional art of pansori singing, a moving and plangently beautiful style of folk song performed by travelling musicians. The linked stories centre on a family of itinerant singers: a boy and his stepfather and half-sister. The boy believes the stepfather caused his mother's death and cannot live with the murderous hatred he feels towards him, so he disappears, leaving father and daughter to travel and perform alone. Believing her art can become elevated to the highest standard only by sensory deprivation, the father is said to have blinded the child. Thereafter, she becomes a legendary performer throughout the land. Years later the half-brother arrives in a village and finds his sister in a tavern. He asks her to sing for him, and with his drum accompaniment the two perform pansori songs throughout the night - though never explicitly acknowledging their relationship. So begins an unforgettable chain of events in one of the strangest and most haunting of novels exploring themes such as forgiveness, the redemptive power of art and modern man's loss of innocence and alienation from traditional values - the values at the heart of Seopyeonje. A magic-realist gem, the novel employs epic, myth and fantasy to create a fusion of the real and the fantastic. Yi Chung-jun's story has attained near-mythical status in South Korea, especially with the acclaimed and award-winning film of the novel breaking box-office records on its release in the 1990s.

Source: https://lti.overdrive.com/media/9751979?cid=37224

Translated Books5 See More

  • 西便制
    Chinese(简体) Book
    西便制
    李清俊 / 이청준 / 2015 / KDC구분 > literature > Korean Literature > Korean Fiction > 20th century > 1945-1999
  • Seopyeonje
    English(English) Book
    Seopyeonje
    Yi Chung-jun / 이청준 / 2011 / KDC구분 > literature > Korean Literature > Korean Fiction > 20th century > 1945-1999
  • Песни Западного края
    Russian(Русский) Book
    Песни Западного края
    Ли Чхончун / 이청준 / 2010 / KDC구분 > literature > Korean Literature > Korean Fiction > 20th century > 1945-1999
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