This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Franklin Rausch. They speak about the Choson dynasty classic tale ‘The Story of Changhwa and Hongnyon’, the origins of this story in the 17th century, its popularity and the subject matter, how the story has changed over time, the earliest English translations, how during the Japanese colonial period the tale revives and becomes central to Korean national identity and a symbol of the daily suffering being felt, the escapist elements of the narrative, the universal aspects of the story that made it so appealing within the deeply hierarchical society of Choson Korea, the moral lessons within the text, and how the story has survived and even found a new home within the movies, literature, and popular culture of modern Korea.
Franklin Rausch is an Associate Professor of History in the department of History & Philosophy at Lander University. Frank received his Ph.D. in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia with his dissertation on ‘The Ambiguity of Violence: Ideology, State, and Religion in the Late Chosŏn Dynasty’. He has been a Visiting Professor for Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea, and is the author of ‘Catholics and Anti-Catholicism in Choson Korea’ (University of Hawaii Press). Pertinent to this podcast, Frank is also the translator and editor of: ‘The Story of Changhwa and Hongnyon’ (https://www.academia.edu/37181277/The_Story_of_Changhwa_and_Hongnyŏn).
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