The Prophet and Other Stories
Chong-Jun Yi
Yi Ch'ōng-Jun was born in 1939 and graduated from the department of German language and literature at Seoul National University in 1966. He has long been recognized as one of Korea's most prolific and demanding authors. Since his debut in 1965, he has enjoyed consistent critical and commercial success. His characters are ordinary people—writers, farmers, photographers and artisans—all struggling to survive in an increasingly materialistic and complicated society. They search for life's significance in the whirlwind change of modern Korea only to discover that the answers to their questions run deep beneath the surface of reality. This collection provides a cross-section of Yi's work, beginning with the haunting novella, The Falconer (1968) and ending with The Fire Worshipers, which won the National Literary Award from the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation in 1986.
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About Chong-Jun Yi
Reviews for The Prophet and Other Stories
World Literature Today
A captivating collection of short stories from one of Korea's most prolific authors. Yi effectively uses [the] characters to demonstrate the ongoing importance of individuals, moral conscience, and spiritual meaning—in modern Korea or any society.
Korean Quarterly
Both translations [this book and Farmers' Dance by Shin Kyông-nim, CEAS Vol. 105] are excellent examples of quality translations of Korean literature.The bilinqual version of Farmers' Dance, the fourth volume in a series published jointly by the Cornell East Asia Series and the DapGae Publishing Company, offer readers the rare opportunity of comparing the original with the translation side by side. It marks an important departure in Korean literature in translation that should be of great help to future translators and students of Korean literature. Together [these books] offer deep insight into the social psychology and cultural history of Korea in a time that has yet to receive a full historical evaluation
Robert J. Fouser
Korean Studies Review