An Introduction to Modern Korean Crime Fiction

What is the course about?

This in-college literature course considers how the crime fiction genre is explored within Korea from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards, thinking about the strong influences from Japanese culture, and then the rejection of cultural values from Japan and the West after the Second World War.

The course begins with contextual discussions on the emergence of crime fiction in Korea in 1908 with the novel Double Jade Flutes and other works which explored the experimental opportunities of crime fiction and raised the debate over the influx of ‘foreign’ works at the perceived detriment of Korean literature. One of the complexities within this period is the lack of foreign translation of early works of Korean Crime fiction, leading to the genre remaining on the margins until the 1990s, even within Korea. The genre was rigorously questioned – is Detective fiction art, or real literature? Alongside discussing important issues of translation and cultural and artistic value, we will explore more recent crime fiction novels published by Korean authors, covering a wide range of themes, from the aging body, wartime trauma, lost freedom and humanity, and how modern day Koreans are affected by the past. The course will aim to address these examples of modern Korean crime fiction amidst their social, geographical, historical and political contexts.

What will we cover?

We will cover : the emergence of Korean short crime stories which appeared in newspapers from 1906, seen as representing ‘the spirit of the time’; the figure of the detective, the frequent absence of the detective figure; crime fiction and the political complexities over the relationship with Japan and fears about Western influences; how anxieties about changing social and cultural values and loss of Korean culture resulted in a resistance to crime fiction (state censorship of ‘proletarian literature). This leads to a consideration of the major themes of modern Korean crime fiction: a revisiting of the past, wartime trauma, loss of freedom, fears about Korean society, aging, and family life.

We will also consider the move away from Western influences after the Cultural Rule period, the Korean War, and then the reconnection to more Western values after the Second World War. We will also think about how Korean Crime fiction sought to recognise and redress the ‘mistakes’ of the past, including the issue of ‘comfort women’ wartime trauma and revisiting the past in order to make sense of the present. Much of recent Korean crime fiction focuses on a main protagonist/ detective who is not an official detective or police officer. Korean Crime fiction is now being heralded as ‘the next big thing’. We will discuss the significance of this, alongside issues of translation, availability, marketability, and the debate over ‘pure’ literature and ‘corrupting’ forms of popular fiction.

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

• Have an understanding of how modern Korean crime fiction has developed from its early twentieth century beginnings to present trends.
• Have an awareness of Western and Japanese fictional influences on modern Korean crime fiction.
• Understand how Modern Korean crime fiction explores social concerns, especially aging, family trauma, and lost freedom.
• Discuss the novels on the course with confidence, and amidst their social, geographical, historical and political contexts.
• Discuss the novels with an attention to evaluating what sets Korean crime fiction apart from other examples of crime fiction? What makes it unique?

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

This course is for anyone who enjoys reading crime fiction and would like to explore the genre in different ways by reading examples of crime fiction from the international market.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

The course will be taught through a variety of short lectures/ power point with contextual slides, alongside large and small group work where we will discuss each of the three novels in detail.

There will be a journal article to read, which will be added to the Google classroom prior to the session. Paper copies will also be available prior to that session.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

Students will need to purchase their own copy of the following three novels:

The Old Woman with the Knife, Gu Byeong-Mo (2013), (Canongate Books, 2023),

The Investigation, J.M.Lee, (Mantle, 2014),

Seven Years of Darkness, (Little, Brown, 2020)

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

Look for other fiction courses in the Literature programme at www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/humanities/literature.