Comparative Literature : Korean literature and British / American literatures

This course is designed to explore a variety of ways of relating the fiction and poetry written in Korea in the 20th century and the fiction and poetry written in the West in English. This will NOT be a question of “this is better than that” but rather we shall be trying to find ways of finding links and complementarities between a few significant works written in very different contexts during the 20th century.

All the Korean works studied will be read in English translation, since the language of the course will be English.

Comparisons will be made between the formal aspects of various works, through close reading of a small number of poems and short stories, as well as between the overall characteristics described in critical histories and studies. For each work discussed, form, subject and contents, critical readings, historical contexts, author’s biographies and critical receptions will all be considered. Major themes such as Love, Nature, Nation, Death and Religion will be examined.

Texts will be be photocopied. There is no particular textbook.

1. (Sept 3 / 5) Introduction :  What is poetry / literature?  Ars Poetica poems

2.  (Sept 10 / No class Friday 12, pre-추석?)   Poems by Kim Sowŏl – Manhae – Yeats – Thomas Hardy : the loving voice

3. (Sept 17 /19)  Sŏ Chŏng-ju –Shin Kyong-Nim –Seamus Heaney –W.H Auden –e.e.cummings

4. (Sept 24 / No class Friday 26, festival?)  Yi Sang Wings

5. (Oct 1 / No class Oct 3 Friday)  Faulkner : A Rose for Emily

6. (Oct 8 / 10) Poems by Kim Su-yŏng – Ku Sang – Kim Kwang-Kyu – Wilfred Owen : poetry, war and human life

7. (Oct 15 / 17) Ko Un  – Seamus Heaney : Poetry about life

8.  Midterm exams

9. (Oct 29 / 31) Poems by Shin Kyŏng-Nim – R. S. Thomas –D.H.Lawrence etc Humans and nature

10.  (Nov 5 / 7)  O Jeong-hui Wayfarer & Katherine Mansfield  The Voyage : Women writing fiction

11. (Nov 12 / 14) Poems by Kim Seung-Hui – Sylvia Plath : Women writing poetry

12. (Nov 19 / 21) Poetry on Buddhist themes: Ko Un – Gary Snyder

13. (Nov 26 / 28) Christian Faith and poetry

14. (Dec 3 / 5) Contemporary short stories (research project: 1 Korean and 1 non-Korean)

15 (Dec 10 / 12) Poems by Kim Su-Yong  – Kim Chun-Su – Chŏn Sang-pyŏng – Robert Frost : The essence of poetry?

The course will be taught as lectures + discussion. Students must prepare a short written statement of their response to each of the works read, for use in class and for submission.

The mid-term report will be “Reading across borders of space and time: challenges of modernity in 'Wings,' 'A Rose for Emily' and some of the poems we have read so far this semester.”  (compare narratorial voice and setting in the 2 stories in examining the role of 'the modern.')

The final report will be “A comparison of the approaches to life seen in the works studied this semester.”

There will be a mid-term and a final exam. Each exam will be graded in such a way as to make it and the grades for the 2 reports roughly equal, with some credit also being given for class preparation