Sunset

Sunset offers a wonderful introduction to the wide variety of writing being published in colonial and postcolonial Korea, all through the lens of the writer Ch’ae Manshik. Ch’ae is best known and loved today for his novels, but here we rediscover him as a man of many talents, whose work managed to cross the lines between popular style and social critique with great success. Janet Poole, author of When the Future Disappears: The Modernist Imagination in Late Colonial Korea

Sunset embraces the sheer diversity of this major author’s oeuvre without shying away from critical questions raised by his literary practice and politics in both the colonial and post-liberation contexts. Spanning genres and literary modes, the volume mirrors the imaginative scope and intertextuality of Ch’ae’s writing and will be of great interest in the classroom and for the general reader of modern literature alike. This is a welcome addition to the expanding catalogue of Korean literature in translation. Christopher P. Hanscom, author of The Real Modern: Literary Modernism and the Crisis of Representation in Colonial Korea

Sunset is a seminal work of translation for researchers, teachers, and students who are interested in modern Korean literature. Not only does it introduce English-language readers to an excellent selection of texts that illuminate the complexity and significance of the writings of Ch’ae, one of the most important modern Korean writers, it also sets an example for ensuing endeavors to showcase individual writers of the Korean language. Serk-Bae Suh, author of Treacherous Translation: Culture, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Korea and Japan from the 1910s to the 1960s

A remarkable, indispensable addition to the growing English-language canon of modern Korean literature, masterfully selected and translated. Eighteen works by a virtuoso writer of satire give us extraordinary insight into various aspects of the Korean peninsula’s modernity, through Ch’ae’s signature style: darkly humorous and penetrating critique of all things and every viewpoint. Jin-kyung Lee, author of Service Economies: Militarism, Sex Work and Migrant Labor in South Korea

Sunset shows that there’s more to the writer than the apologetic novellas that appeared after 1945, and that he’s a writer well worth (re)discovering. Anyone wanting to know more about twentieth-century Korean literature, could certainly do worse than starting their journey here. Tony's Reading List

A valuable introduction to the work of an important Korean writer. . . . Taken together, Sunset illuminates a turbulent and often overcast period in Korean history through the sensibility of a conflicted and yet acutely observant writer. John Feffer, Korean Quarterly

It's fascinating to contemplate the bifurcated Korea of today and consider the insights this anthology offers from the not-too-distant past. Book Monger Coast Weekend

This volume, with its selections span[s] a variety of forms and genres, presented in colorful and accessible prose by two accomplished veteran translators. Acta Koreana

[Ch'ae's] diverse works allow readers to experience life in colonial and post-colonial Korea through the lens of various people of different social strata, genders, and occupations. International Examiner