Literature Culture (April 15th, 2020)

안녕 everybody~

Welcome to another blog post of GKCS!
This week we will be covering Korea's Literature Culture. This included not only books and poetry but webtoons as well!
 
Let's get started on what we went through in our meetings~!

We first started by visiting the roots of Korean literature itself. Starting from the meaning of 한 (pronounced as "Han") to discussing of 이광수 (pronounced as "Yi Kwang-su") a famous Korean writer. When we each spoke of what we knew about Han:

• Yoorim stated how she had heard several theories of how the concept of Han itself isn't a Korean one but rather a Japanese one.
• Dori explained how she saw it as a cultural concept rather than a national one.
• PJ's thoughts after learning about Han and the definition was that it was very unique to Korea due to the history and memories of emotion and sorrow contained in it and that it could be possible for other countries to have their own versions of Han within their own countries.
• Jun, on the hand, had no particular thoughts on the topic as she learned of the word from a foreigner and thought of it as being a nationalistic concept rather than an emotional one.

After the brief history lesson, we then jumped right into Korean Poetry.

Our individual analysis of this poem went as follows:

• Mars stated how it sounded like a break-up, in which PJ agrees to and further adds on how it sounded like there was a longing of the past in which the person waits for their lover who did not return.
• Jun thought it represented the relationship of North and South Korea.
• Yoorim stated how this poem was one of the basic and classic poems that will be tested during exams in Korea. The poem was written in the 1930s with the premise of the poem being based on a female in sorrow due to their lover not coming back. This premise is backed up by the definition of the poem's title being the flower "Azalea" which means pure maiden, a female flower in flower language.

We then jumped into the Fiction section of Korean Literature.

While discussing the topic of fictional literature in Korea, we had come to an interesting discussion of how Korean novels tend to be more focused on certain themes.

Yoorim stated how this is chosen by the government in which she explained in depth by saying how translated books are usually chosen by the government due to certain standards that the society wants us to read. Dori agreed with this and stated how Korean novels felt like they focused on what the society liked.

Yoorim then stated how Korean people did not like to read much, her personal experience of this was how she liked to read in elementary but in high school, she started to not have any time to read due to the lack of time as she needed to prepare for exams and study.

From there, we jumped straight into literature that is booming in Korea, Webtoons!

We talked about a few of our webtoons but when we came to discussing the topic, we focused more on the effects of webtoon as a whole on Korea.
Yoorim stated how webtoon allowed artists a chance to become an employed artist, even if they have to compete against each other. Just like Korean dramas, webtoons acted as a source for talking about historical events.
Jun added to this by stating how webtoon acts as a communication platform between the artists and readers, unlike other readings where it is hard for authors to connect with their readers.
PJ also talked about how webtoons also acted as a topic of discussion amongst students as well.

That was a summary of our second club meeting!