This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Bruce Fulton. They speak about the history of Korean literature, its origins as performative and oral works, the lyrical songs of the Koryo period, an overview of classical Korean literature, how the shift into verse happened and what it looked like, the rise of narrative fiction, the centrality of classical Chinese writing in this early literature, the development of modern literature and how this rapidly changing world was represented, important developments in poetry and drama, how Korean literature has continued to evolve along-side Korean national identity, and a deep look at significant books that Bruce and his wife, Ju-Chan, have translated (‘The Catcher in the Loft’, ‘One Left: A Novel’, ‘The Dwarf’).

Bruce Fulton is the inaugural holder of the Young-Bin Min Chair in Korean Literature and Literary Translation, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. He is the co-translator, with Ju-Chan Fulton, of numerous works of modern Korean fiction; co-editor, with Kwon Young-min, of Modern Korean Fiction (Columbia University Press, 2005), editor of the Korea section of the Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature (2003); and general editor of the Modern Korean Fiction series published by the University of Hawai’i Press. He is the co-recipient of several translation awards and grants, including the first National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship for a Korean literary work, the first residency awarded by the Banff International Literary Translation Centre for the translation of a work from any Asian Language, and the recipient of a 2018 Manhae Grand Prize in Literature.

*** ‘What Is Korean Literature?’ by Youngmin Kwon and Bruce Fulton (https://ieas.directfrompublisher.com/catalog/book/what-korean-literature).

*** ‘One Left: A Novel’ by Kim Soom. Translated by Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton (https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295747668/one-left/).

*** ‘The Dwarf’ by Cho Se-hŭi. Translated by Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton (https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/the-dwarf/).

*** ‘The Catcher in the Loft’ by Un-yŏng Ch’ŏn. Translated by Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton (https://www.sunypress.edu/p-6905-the-catcher-in-the-loft.aspx).

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