Early Modern Vernacular Prose

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course will introduce students to early modern vernacular Korean prose writing. The first half of the semester will be dedicated to situating the prose narrative in the history and culture of Chosŏn Korea from roughly the seventeenth century onward. We will critically consider issues of vernacularity, diglossia, and orality and think about the material culture of books and “popular” forms of entertainment. Students will be introduced to the basics of early modern Korean orthography, grammar, and vocabulary. In the second half of the semester, we will read and translate together The Story of Changbaek (Changbaek chŏn), a nineteenth-century vernacular novel. Primary reading will be in Korean.