[KS] KSR 2001-16: _An Introduction to Classical Korean Literature_

[Stephen Epstein]

Folks, 

This one should have come first, but the initial transmission seems to have
been delayed and then swallowed by our ever-erratic server.

Stephen



_An Introduction to Classical Korean Literature: From Hyangga to P'ansori_,
by Kichung Kim. Armonk: M.E.Sharpe, 1996. (ISBN 1-56324-785-2 cloth, ISBN
1-56324-786-0 paper) XI+232 pages.

Reviewed by Peter Schroepfer
Leiden University

_An Introduction to Classical Korean Literature: From Hyangga to P'ansori_
by Kichung Kim is a personal work and will be best appreciated by those who
empathize with its autobiographical character. "Not knowing classical
Korean literature, I felt excluded from the soil in which I ought to have
rooted my intellectual, emotional, moral, and spiritual being." (IX)
Throughout the book, one meets with numerous first person intrusions ('I
believe this' or 'I think that,') with moving subjective commentary ("How
vivid the voice of this distressed little girlÉWe can feel her sorrow and
distressÉ"(109)), and even information about the author's experiences in
teaching sijo. The subjective tone is not to be criticized, as the author
never makes greater claims for his book: "From the beginningÉthis study has
been a personal undertaking. More than anything else, it is a report on my
reading of those works of classical Korean literature I came to love" (IX).
As a record of a "personal undertaking," _An Introduction to Classical
Korean Literature: From Hyangga to P'ansori_ is readable and largely
enjoyable. Nonetheless, readers hoping to find a coherent and comprehensive
introduction to pre-modern Korean literature may be disappointed.

One of the book's attractive features is that it covers much of interest to
the general Western reader, including several of the most outstanding
pre-modern Korean literary works, women's writing during the Chos™n period,
the authors H™ Kyun and Pak Chiw™n, and the genres known as _hyangga_ and
_p'ansori_. This concentration creates a problem, however, in that while it
makes the book more accessible, its scope means that most pre-modern Korean
literature, or any serious discussion of it, is missing, as is an overall
picture of literary history.

Just as the student of European classical music must adjust expectations in
order to get the most out of a class in ethnomusicology, so too a student
of Western literature will have to reframe his horizons if he is to truly
understand Korean literature, instead of simply reading extracts from it.
The author does briefly raise important methodological issues in the first
chapter, "What is Korean Literature?," and the tenth chapter, "Notes on
P'ansori", as well as in short comments throughout the book ("We must not
think of Hong Kiltong ch™n as a novel in the modern sense of the
wordÉ"(141), "To fully appreciate p'ansori, one must attend a live
performance by a master _kwangdae_ accompanied by an accomplished drummer."
(207)). Nonetheless, readers versed primarily in Western literature would
be better prepared to approach Korean material if they have learned not
only that most Korean scholars consider oral texts worthy of literary
research, as the author tells us, but also something of the dynamic
relationship between oral and written literature in Korea, or how the high
degree of orality in many Korean literary genres affects the unfolding of
the narrative. Some background about traditional Korean society, literary
production and distribution during the Chos™n period, the relationship
between elite and popular texts in Korea, and several other general topics
would have made this book more valuable as a guide to pre-modern Korean
literature.

Unfortunately, as well, many points in the book are misleading, if not
altogether inaccurate. We are told that sijo "Éflourishes today as it has
for nearly six hundred years, not only in Korea but wherever there is a
Korean community." Nothing could be farther from the truth in Korea proper,
where the 1920's saw the emergence of the so-called "Sijo Revival Movement"
(_sijo puhžng undong_). Today sijo enjoys little more than a geriatric cult
following, and the vast majority of young people experience the poetic
genre directly only as homework or never at all.

The author frequently enlivens episodes from Korean literature with a
little storytelling of his own. Although this makes his prose more
entertaining, his introduction to the "H™nhwaga", a _hyangga_ poem/song from
the _Samguk Yusa_, goes too far in its imaginative fictions:

They have probably left Ky™ngju, the Shilla capital, the day before or very
early that morning and are now making a [sic] leisurely progress to the
north. They stop for lunch at the foot of a cliff. The governor is on
horseback, his beautiful young wife, Lady Suro, perhaps rides in a
carriage, and before they alight they pause to admire the splendid scenery.
For Lady Suro it might be her first journey out of Ky™ngju. She is struck
by the scenery before her, the sparkling East Sea and the rocky cliffs. And
what is that she sees high up on the cliff, near the very top? A beautiful
flower in full bloomÉa red azalea perhaps? It almost takes her breath away.
(13-14)

As should be apparent, the thin documentation about the "H™nhwaga" scarcely
justifies such a romantic recreation. What makes this fictionalization even
more problematic is that the author first suggests the event may have
occurred on Lady Suro's first journey outside of Ky™ngju, but later notes
that "The Samguk Yusa account adds that because of Lady Suro's unparalleled
beauty she had been abducted several times in the past, whenever she
traveled through deep mountains and along lakes" (15). One might argue that
these mountains and lakes existed in what was then considered to be part of
Ky™ngju, or that the Samguk Yusa text can be interpreted to mean this
particular abduction was but the first of many such unfortunate
experiences, but it is far more likely that this is not the case, making
such a dramatic departure from the text a dangerous journey indeed.

Even more troubling, however, is a tendency that emerges in a footnote to
Kim's chapter "The Mystery and Loveliness of the Hyangga." "My English
translation of this passage is based on the revised edition of Yi
Py™ng-do's Korean translation of the Samguk Yusa (Seoul: Kwangjo sa, 1979),
256-57." (23) In other words, the story of what happens when Ch™yong finds
four legs in his bed has been translated twice: first from Chinese to
Korean by Yi Py™ngdo, then from Korean to English by Kim. The "Ch™yongga"
itself is written in _idu_, and thus difficult even for specialists to
decipher confidently, but the accompanying text is not especially difficult
as hanmun texts go, so the reader must wonder if the author of _An
Introduction to Classical Korean Literature_ is actually unable to read the
language in which the bulk of classical Korean literature is written.
Elsewhere as well, the author appears to translate from Korean translations
instead of from hanmun texts.

Many statements are merely confusing. In the chapter "The Incomparable
Lyricism of Kory™ Songs," the author notifies the reader that "Éthere was no
indigenous writing system during the Kory™ period and it was therefore
necessary to rely on oral transmission of [Koyr™] vernacular verses"(25).
Many languages lack indigenous writing systems, yet do not need to rely on
oral transmission to preserve and disseminate vernacular poetry; _hyangga_
were recorded in the vernacular during the Kory™ period using a "hybrid
writing system" known as _hyangch'al_ (23). Other instances follow: Kim notes
that the _Samguk Yusa_ has a Buddhist "slant," (63) as if this 'bias' were
anything less than the very reason the _Samguk Yusa_ is more valuable as
literature than the _Samguk Sagi_; Hwanung of the Tan'gun foundation myth
descends to earth at "T'aebaek Mountain"(63), the problem here being that
without further explanation, readers not already familiar with the myth
might easily take T'aebaek Mountain to be a mountain with that name that
forms part of the border between Ky™ngbuk and Kangw™n provinces.

The greatest contribution made by _An Introduction to Classical Korean
Literature_ is in the chapter "Notes on Shijo", in which Kim conveys his
experience teaching a course in classical Korean literature in translation
at San Jose State University, where, the reader is informed, the author has
taught English literature since the 1960's. During the course students were
given the opportunity to write sijo in English, and this was "one of our
most fruitful activities" (87). One of the author's students, a certain
Katrina Gee, "lived some years in Japan" and "had become interested in the
haiku and in haiku writing" (87). The reader is given several of Gee's
English language sijo, as well as two from "Mrs. L's son's eighth-grade
English honors class" (92), though it is not clear just who Mrs L is,
beyond that she wanted to give her eighth-graders "a basic background and
history of shijo poetry, and enough understanding of the subject to enable
them to write their own shijo poetry" (89). In the US, many elementary and
secondary English classes are taught to write haiku, so it is only natural
that Korea's most accessible variety of set-form poetry be given a chance
as well, for it may be a helpful tool in literature appreciation. As the
author notes, "experience has taught me that having students try their hand
at writing shijo, adhering to its most basic rules, not only helped them
better appreciate the classical shijo but also gave them an opportunity to
turn the experience of their daily lives into poetry." (90) It will only be
a matter of time before the occasional English class in large Californian
cities, perhaps those having large Korean-American populations, begins
experimenting with sijo. The author's discussion of English language sijo,
particularly the guidelines and a suggested four "basic rules" for
composition (90), would be a fine guide for anyone wishing to engage in
such a literary endeavor.

Despite its drawbacks, readers will find _An Introduction to Classical
Korean Literature: From Hyangga to P'ansori_ an affectionate, and at times
moving, tribute to the treasures of Korean literature. Such a tribute is
what Kichung Kim sought above all to accomplish, and in this he has
certainly succeeded. His personal commentary, which offers a new
perspective on some of the most popular works of Korean literature, honors
the tradition.


Citation:
Schroepfer, Peter 2001
Review of _An Introduction to Classical Korean Literature: From Hyangga to
P'ansori_, by Kichung Kim (1996)
_Korean Studies Review_ 2001, no. 16
Electronic file: http://www.iic.edu/thelist/review/ksr01-16.htm