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Printed/Published Work Korean(한국어)

실화 (한국문학의 원류 단편선 3 (1939-1945))

About the Original Works

Original Title
실화 (한국문학의 원류 단편선 3 (1939-1945))
Title Romanization
Silhwa (hangungmunhagui wollyu danpyeonseon3)
English Title
A True Story
Classification

KDC구분 > literature > Korean Literature > Korean Fiction > 20th century

Author
Yi Sang
Co-Author
-
Published Year
1939
Publisher
-
ISBN
-
Main Characters
Narrator, Yeon
Subject/Theme
Romance; civilization

About the Author

  • Yi Sang
  • Birth : 1910 ~ 1937
  • Occupation : Novelist
  • First Name : Sang
  • Family Name : Yi
  • Korean Name : 이상
  • ISNI : 0000000358137117
  • Works : 70
Plot

The story is told alternately from the past in Seoul and the present in Tokyo. In the past, the narrator probes into his wife Yeon’s affairs with other men. When she tells him the names of the men she has had affairs with, the narrator wants to kill her. He leaves Seoul and goes to Tokyo only to his regret.

Descriptions(Languages 2)
  • Korean(한국어)
  • English(English)

1939년 <문장>에 발표된 이상의 단편소설이다. 작가가 세상을 떠난 후 유고작의 형태로 발표되었다. 이 작품은 표면적으로 '나'와 아내의 연애 갈등으로 읽을 수 있다. 그러나 작가인 이상의 다른 작품들을 참고하여 읽을 때 단순히 연애 이야기로만 볼 수 없는 난해한 작품이다. 그것은 현대적인 문명 공간이라 여겼던 일본이 생각했던 것과는 다른 공간이었음과, 그로 인해 자신의 작가적, 시인적 열정을 상실하는 과정을 보여주는 것이기도 하다.

This short story by Yi Sang was posthumously published in the literary magazine Munjang in 1939. The story can be read as only a couple’s conflict over the wife’s affairs, but given Yi Sang’s other works, the spaces and the conflict in this story have symbolic meaning. For example, the narrator believes Tokyo to be a space of culture and modern ideas; however, he finds that it is a place where his passion as a writer and poet vaporizes.

Translated Books1

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