This first and only study of North Korean literary history by a Western scholar deals with the crucial role played by Han Sōrya, chairman of the D.P.R.K.'s Federation of Literature and Art from 1948 to his purge in 1962, both in devising the iconography of Kim Il Sung's personality cult and in defining the early course of North Korean letters. Through brief studies of Han's own canonical works the author also sets out to dispel the widely-held assumption that North Korean literature is compatible with Soviet and Chinese socialist realism. The appendix includes a complete translation of Han's 1951 novella Jackals (Sungnyangi).
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A significant contribution to international scholarship on North Korea.
" - Far Eastern Economic Review
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Myers's study is an extremely valuable contribution to our understanding of what remains, even today, an opaque society.... Given the paucity of materials in English on North Korean literature, his book opens an important window onto a virtually unknown subject.
" - Korean Quarterly
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A landmark of Korean Studies in the United States... a great help to English-speaking readers interested in North Korean literature.
" - Chosen Gakuho
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A witty, precise study.
" - The Wall Street Journal
