It may seem improbable in a nation that’s grown steadily wealthier and more self-confidant for decades, but for a generation of South Koreans, the literary symbol of their national mood is a little person. The novel in which he appears, The Dwarf, by Cho Se-hui, is probably the most important piece of Korean fiction written since 1945 said Bruce Fulton, professor of Korean literature and literary translation at the University of British Columbia. At an evening lecture and reading at The Korea Society, Fulton introduced his audience to The Dwarf and explained its deep resonance with Korean readers.

Published in the late 1970s, The Dwarf isn’t quite a novel in the conventional sense: it’s a series of 12 stories united by common characters—a lower middle-class midget and his family, his neighbors and a set of powerful chaebol leaders—that mixes vivid realism with occasional flights of fantasy.

Cho’s writing bridges two of his era’s literary schools of thought. One held that writers should be guided by an ethos of social realism and political relevance. The other emphasized the importance of a distinctive style. Cho included both, and added much that was distinctly his own. A member of the han,gul generation (the first wave of Korean writers who had been educated in their native language) Cho felt the need to create a truly national work and so wrote in a simple syntax that made his work accessible to Koreans of all educational levels.

For his readers, Cho’s substance was just as accessible as his style. During the period, South Korea’s military government was embarked on an ambitious industrialization drive. It promised Koreans that new economic development would create a better quality of life. But where it didn’t discuss industrialization’s grim downsides, Cho did. The Dwarf’s characters are beset by chronic unemployment and hopelessness, pollution, poor public services and an unrelenting ethos of consumption. Though Korea is much more prosperous today than when Cho wrote, it’s no small detail that Koreans are still reading The Dwarf.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007 

About the Speaker