Novel
The Moving Castle
움직이는 성
Hwang Sun-won · 1968
Synopsis
Three men look for where to found their lives in a modernising Korea. Jun-tae, a logical mind, can believe neither in shamanic superstition nor in Christian fanaticism, and his lucidity leaves him without ties, wandering. Seong-ho, an evangelist turned pastor, bears like an original sin the love he had for his master's wife; expelled from his Church for questioning the shamanic element in Korean Christianity, he devotes himself to rooting his faith. Min-gu, a folklorist of shamanism, attends church while yielding to the shamans' rites.
Context
The novel appeared in four parts in the magazine Hyundae Munhak, from May 1968 to October 1972, then in book form at Samjungdang in 1973, and was included in the complete works. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture sees in it the antinomy of shamanism and Christianity in Korea in the nineteen-seventies; the title designates a people who, lacking a fixed fortress, rely on their spirit of wandering, and the moving fortress becomes the sign of a reconciliation rather than of a conflict. The Literature Translation Institute notes that it is one of the few works of fiction to show the roles of the sexes in shamanism.
Who it is for
A long novel, with three main characters and a religious debate, translated into French and English as early as 1985.
Prizes and reception
Also translated into Japanese in 2010, and retranslated into English in 2015 under a different title.
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