Speaker: Dr. Minsoo Kang (University of Missouri – St. Louis)
Time: Monday, November 30, 2020 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Location: Zoom – The Zoom link will be sent to registrants.
How to register? Please fill out a form here:
https://ckr.iar.ubc.ca/monday-november-30-2020/
More details are included here. All of our seminars are open to the public!
Talk Summary: There is no doubt that The Story of Hong Gildong (『홍길동전』) is one of the most important works of prose fiction of premodern Korea, and perhaps still the most beloved. There are, however, a number of persistent myths about its significance that have distorted scholarly understanding of the work, including its traditional attribution to Heo Gyun (허균) and the dating of its composition to the early seventeenth century. This has also led to the interpretation of The Story of Hong Gildong as essentially a work of political protest literature criticizing Joseon dynasty policy on illegitimate children (서자) as well its entire feudal structure. Such views originate with the colonial-era literary scholar Kim Taejun (김태준), the author of the enormously influential work History of Joseon Fiction (『조선소설사』, 1930-31). In my book, I sought to make the definitive case that The Story of Hong Gildong could not have been written before the nineteenth century as it features all the characteristics of popular fiction written in hangeul that began to appear in the late eighteenth century. I also contend that while all fictional narratives (소설) of the Joseon dynasty tend to be lumped together, the hangeul fiction that was written by commoner writers for commoner readership should be treated as a separate and special category of writing that points to a genuine people’s literature in the late Joseon period.
