Novel
고향
Not translated into English
Yi Ki-yeong · 1933
Synopsis
A student in Tōkyō, Kim Hui-jun abandons his studies for lack of money and returns to Wonteo, his village, where the factories are encroaching on the fields. He becomes a farmer there, opens an evening school and gradually becomes the guide of the peasants, who are held in check by An Seung-hak, the steward in charge of the leases, who abuses his power. Gap-suk, An's daughter, a student in Seoul, leaves home after her affair with a merchant's son is discovered and enters a silk mill under the name Ok-hui, where she grows closer to Hui-jun.
Context
The novel appeared as a serial in the Chosun Ilbo from November 1933 to 21 September 1934; according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, two instalments were written by Kim Ki-jin during the author's arrest. It was reprinted in two volumes from 1936 by Hanseong Doseo. Rather than the education of the peasants, it puts forward their economic struggle. The Encyclopedia sees in it the most accurate portrayal of the rural life of its time, while judging forced a story in which everything is settled by the struggle of the dominated against their masters, and ranks it among the great peasant novels of the thirties.
Who it is for
A long novel, with many characters and a demonstrative message, which exists neither in French nor in English.
Prizes and reception
Translated into Japanese in 1960 and into Chinese in 1978; Korean critics compare it with the rural novels of Yi Kwang-su and Sim Hun.
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