Novel
구마검
Not translated into English
Yi Hae-jo · 1908
Synopsis
Ham Jin-hae, a well-off and educated man whose family grew rich as interpreters for the embassies in China, watches his children die in infancy. His wife, née Choe, raised in a village of shamans, blames each illness on spirits, calls in shamans and blind diviners, and falls under the influence of a false shaman. When their son catches smallpox, she throws away her husband's remedies and entrusts him to the rites. Then, on the advice of geomancers, the couple moves the ancestors' tombs, despite the warnings of a cousin, and the household is ruined.
Context
The text appeared as a serial in the Jeguk Sinmun from 25 April to 23 July 1908, then in book form in December. The title names the sword that drives out demons, and the demon targeted is superstition itself. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture sees in it an almost scientific analysis of how belief takes hold, and notes the influence of a Chinese satirical novel of the late Qing, through the letter that opens the narrative, as well as borrowings from pansori and from the farce of the false shaman. Yang Min-jong reads in the false shamaness a veiled criticism of Queen Min.
Who it is for
A didactic novel, built like a demonstration: superstition wins out, ruins the family, and then comes the lesson.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by the national encyclopaedia as a success of the Enlightenment novel, superstition being its very subject.
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