Novel
Scenes from Ch'ŏnggye Stream
천변풍경
Pak Tae-won · 1936
Synopsis
Along the Cheonggye, in the heart of Seoul, we follow the people of a neighbourhood over the course of a year, with no hero and no central plot. According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Mr Min, who gambles and keeps a concubine, dreams of a seat on the municipal council; the young Geum-sun is helped by Gimiko, a café waitress; Ippeuni and other women suffer from old-fashioned family ties; Chang-su, a boy come up from the countryside, changes through contact with the city. The stories alternate, and the reader passes from one life to another.
Context
The text first appeared in the review Jogwang in 1936, as a medium-length novel, then a sequel completed it in 1937; both were revised and gathered in a volume in 1938 by Pakmun Seogwan. The Encyclopedia counts about a hundred and fifty characters in it, among them some thirty central figures, caught up in stories told in alternation. The critic Choe Jae-seo spoke of a purely recording gaze, which the Encyclopedia qualifies by noting the narrator's frequent judgements; it reads in it a history of everyday life, kept apart from politics.
Who it is for
A long novel with no central plot and a great many characters, translated into French in 2025.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the representative modernist novel of the thirties; translated into Japanese, English and German.
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