Song of Arirang and Koreans in Modern East Asia

Undergraduate / Graduate

What did it mean to be Korean in an era defined by colonialism, revolution, and various upheavals? What might it have been like to live the modern era as a Korean in East Asia, with acute vigilance and enduring hope? This course explores these questions through a close reading of Song of Arirang, the collaborative (auto-)biography of Kim San (1905-1938), "a Korean revolutionary," as co-written by Nym Wales (Helen Foster Snow, 1907-1997), an American journalist and aspiring novelist. Based on oral interviews conducted in Yan'an, China, around the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), the work takes the form of Kim San's autobiography, tracing a life that spanned the turbulent landscapes of early twentieth-century East Asia-shaped by capitalism, nationalism, imperialism, communism, modernization, and diaspora. We treat Song of Arirang both as a historical narrative and as a literary work, examining it as an unusually rich treasury layered with the voices and perspectives of modern East Asians whose lives and stories traversed China, Korea, Japan, Manchuria, and the United States. Working through a recent, densely annotated edition over the course of the quarter, students will explore a wide spectrum of life trajectories, aspirations, despairs, and struggles-both individual and collective-experienced by Koreans and other East Asians during these transformative decades. No prior knowledge of Korea or East Asia is required. Open to MAPH students.