"Explores the robust and dynamic literary dialogues that emerged between writers in North Korea, South Korea, and Japan during the Cold War decades of the 1950s-1980s. Unlike the dominant narrative of these years, which assumes that the post-1945 processes of decolonization and division isolated these three literary domains from one another, the book shows how the shared predicaments of the Cold War and national division in fact brought them together, with a key role played by the Korean diasporic community in Japan, which was uniquely positioned to interact with writers and texts from both Koreas. With its multilingual, regional perspective, the book challenges the "national literature" paradigm of literary studies, showing how cross-border networks of textual transit and exchange played a central role in the creative transformations of these decades"-- Provided by publisher.
In Korea, the end of the Second World War in 1945 brought both liberation from Japanese colonial rule and the division of the nation by the triumphant Allies. The peninsula was not only decoupled from its former colonial metropole but also carved up into two halves that were subsequently incorporated into the rival blocs of the emerging Cold War order. Although the two Koreas are typically seen as isolated from each other, texts continued to circulate between them—with the assistance of colleagues from the Korean diaspora in Japan and beyond—throughout the ensuing decades.
I Jonathan Kief follows the triangular flow of texts linking North Korea, South Korea, and Japan from 1945 until the 1980s, revealing overlooked paths of interaction and exchange. He highlights the creative ways in which poets, playwrights, novelists, critics, and academics crossed boundaries of language, ideology, genre, and geography to challenge the stability of the Cold War. By showing how writers in North and South Korea engaged in dialogue via the mediation of a multiethnic set of colleagues in Japan, Triangle Republics offers a new perspective on this era, emphasizing its vibrant, dynamic, and interconnected nature.
I Jonathan Kief follows the triangular flow of texts linking North Korea, South Korea, and Japan from 1945 until the 1980s, revealing overlooked paths of interaction and exchange.
