Classic Korean Tales: With Commentaries

Classic Korean Narratives including Myths, Folktales, Sino-Korean Novels and Poetry Delight in this book of eleven Korean literary classics which provides a window into the culture, history and thoughts of Korean people. Stories are organized into Origin Stories, Stories of Love and Marriage, Beauty and Fantasy. Each piece is followed by thoughtful commentary that helps readers unlock their universality and historicity. A lonely boy becomes a hero who establishes a nation; an abandoned daughter becomes a goddess who manages death; an ordinary wife and husband become a queen and king in a foreign country. These stories reveal the value of merit vs position or power. They show that if people take advantage of their merits and use their power in support of others, they can accomplish wonderful things and gain happiness even when they possess nothing special. The reason these stories endure through time and continue to move the hearts and minds of readers is that people consider the thoughts and emotions in these stories to be precious.A Way of Communicating with Time: The World of Classical Imagination Reading the classics is similar to the experience of communicating across time. The world of classics, which appears interesting and mysterious, also contains the dreams and hopes of contemporary people. Even though the past has disappeared, we are encountering the dreams and hopes of people from olden times as you read the classics and fall into the world of these stories.

An Associate Professor at the Institute of Korean Studies at Yonsei University, South Korea, Dr. Key-Sook Choe’s main research fields include Korean classical narrative, Korean printed media during the early modern period, gender studies, and affective studies. She received her Ph.D. from the graduate school of Yonsei University, where she specialized in Korean classical literature. Published books include Cheonyeo-gwisin (Female Ghosts), 2013; Joseon sidae Eorini Inmunhak (Humanities for Children in the Joseon Period), 2013; and Hwansang (The Fantastics in Literature), 2003; published collaborations include Jipdan Gamseong-ui Gyeobo (A History of Collective Affects), 2017; Bonjour Pansori! (in French), 2017; Gamseong Sahoe (Affective Society), 2014; and Gamjeong-eui Inmunhak (Humanities of Emotions), 2013.