Lee Ho-cheol et al / 이호철 / 2005 / KDC구분 > literature > Korean Literature > Korean Fiction > 20th century > Short Story

Here for the first time in English is a selection of short stories representing over forty years of the creative output of one of South Korea’s most prominent contemporary writers. Born in what is now North Korea, Lee Ho-Chul makes use of an astonishing variety of literary styles to offer a panoramic view of the devastating impact authoritarian rule, draconian anticommunism, and particularly national division have had on the everyday lives of Koreans in the latter half of the twentieth century. A staunch defender of democracy, Lee was imprisoned by the authoritarian Park Chung Hee regime in 1974. In his award-winning "Wasting Away," Lee offers a stark, dramatic portrait of the overwhelming sense of despair and frustration felt by one family in the tense aftermath of Park’s military takeover. "The Deputy Mayor Does Not Go to Take Up His Appointment" turns to the absurd to explode the psychology of fear pervading Korean society under Park’s rule: The protagonist runs madly away from the very soldiers who have come to make him deputy mayor of Masan. From the searing realization of refugees in "Away from Home" that they will never see their village in the North again to the chilling story of two brothers forced to dig their own graves after being mistakenly identified as North Koreans by South Korean soldiers in "Birthday Party," Lee unflinchingly probes the depths of the Cold War ideological polarization that has yet to release its grip on those who make the Korean peninsula their home.   Source: http://www.amazon.com/Panmunjom-Other-Stories-Signature-Books/dp/1891936840

Lee Ho-cheol et al / 이호철 / 2005 / KDC구분 > literature > Korean Literature > Korean Fiction > 20th century > Short Story

Die Themen sind uns dabei durchaus vertraut: Es geht um die Suche nach der eigenen Identität, um Alltag und Geschichte, Erinnern, Erfinden und Verdrängen, um die alltägliche Entfremdung in einer anonymisierten Umwelt, um Liebes(ver)lust und Kommunikationslosigkeit. Aber es werden auch traditionelle Motive der koreanischen Literatur aufgenommen (Naturmotivik). Verwiesen sei auch auf die oft in der koreanischen Literatur anzutreffenden Mutter- und Großmutter-Figuren, in denen sich Zerbrechlichkeit mit Stärke und Zuversicht vereinen.§Dieser Überblick über die moderne südkoreanische Literatur bezeugt nicht zuletzt auch, wie sehr sich Ost und West stets künstlerisch beeinflusst haben.   Source: http://www.lovelybooks.de/autor/Sylvia-Bräsel/Koreanische-Erzählungen-144372670-w/

Lee Ho-cheol et al / 이호철 / 2009 / KDC구분 > literature > Korean Literature > Korean Fiction > 20th century > Short Story

板門店という民族分断の境界線で出会った南と北の男女の、イデオロギーでは割り切れない人間性を描いた表題作をはじめ、故郷喪失、家族離散など、今なお朝鮮戦争の傷跡を抱えて生きる人間の姿を描き出す。現代韓国文学の代表的作品をオリジナル編集によってまとめ紹介。南と北ふたつの体制を生きた作家が、統一の希求を込め紡ぎ出した珠玉の小説集。