Seopyeonje The Southerners' Songs - Softcover

Yi Chung-jun

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0720613590 ISBN 13: 9780720613599

Publisher: Peter Owen Ltd, 2011

Synopsis

Sop yonje is a disturbing and haunting novel set in Korea s southern provinces and among the p ansori singers, practitioners of the ancient storytelling art where blindness is seen to be an aid to creating pure art, being free of sensory distraction and temptation. A Song man causes his daughter blindness in order to keep her from following her half-brother, who ran away unable to keep up with the rigorous training The daughter forgives her father before his death and through this act of forgiveness, she deepens her insight into the nature of human existence, enriching her own soul, and as her father had insisted would happen finally elevating the art of her p ansori singing. Many years later the half-brother, now an aimless wanderer, returns looking for his sister and finds her in a tavern. He asks her to sing for him, and with his drum accompaniment, the two half-siblings perform all through the night. This is the beginning of a truly unforgettable climax to the strangest and most beautiful of novels exploring the themes of forgiveness, the redemptive power of art, and modern man s loss of innocence and the alienation from traditional values.

About this title

About the Author:

Yi Chung-jun (August 9 1939 - July 31 2008) was one of the leading south Korean novelists in recent years. Many of his works have been adapted into movies and drama series. According to critic Kim Byeong-ik, Yi Chung-jun opened up a new pace of Korean literature before the true modern literature of Korea was established in the 1960s. Yi Chung-jun died from lung cancer at the age of 68 in 2008. Seopyeonje was translated from the Korean by Ok Young Kim Chang

About this edition

• Publisher: Peter Owen Ltd
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0720613590
• ISBN 13: 9780720613599
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 220