Short stories
모반
Not translated into English
O Sang-won · 1957
Synopsis
In the wake of the liberation of 1945, left-wing and right-wing parties multiply and clash. Min, an idealistic young man, joins the secret society of one of them; his skill at shooting makes him, according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the man for assassinations. On the day set for killing an opponent, his mother, gravely ill, is at her worst, and a comrade urges him to put the cause before her. Caught between his conscience and what the organisation demands of him, he must choose.
Context
The story appeared in issue 35 of the journal Hyundae Munhak, in November 1957, and earned its author the third Dong-in Prize, in 1958. It is set amid the factional struggles and political terror that followed liberation. The Encyclopedia sees in it the question of whether a man can recover his humanity, notes the influence of André Malraux's literature of action, claimed by the author and noted by the jury, and points out devices that heighten the drama.
Who it is for
A short story, centred on a gunman ordered to choose; no translation of it is recorded.
Prizes and reception
Awarded by the Dong-in jury, then in its third edition, a few months after its publication in a magazine.
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