From Wŏnso Pond

Samuel Perry, translator of From Wŏnso Pond, has given us a welcome translation into English of Kang Kyŏngae's (1906–44) seminal fictional work about peasant and proletariat exploitation and politicization in colonial Korea. The book follows the dramatic stories of three main characters, Sŏnbi, Ch'ŏtchae, and Kannani, and their paths from dispossession as peasants from an older, waning social structure into a no less exploitative condition in rapidly industrializing colonial cities. The transformations of these newly rising proletariats toward politicized awakening are contextualized in a richly informative translator's introduction. Perry's historically and critically informed introduction helps readers situate the complexity of the text from production to consumption, in its various contexts, from the colonial era to the postcolonial aftermath. The original title, Ingan Munje (人間問題), which can be literally translated as “The Human Predicament,” [the translated title refers to the legend of Wŏnso Pond that opens the narrative] was first...