Short stories
Kapitan Ri
꺼삐딴 리
Jeon Gwang-yong · 1962
Synopsis
Dr Yi In-guk, a skilled physician, always knows how to serve whoever holds power. Under the colonial period, he distinguished himself by his zeal: he spoke Japanese even in his sleep, refused to admit an independence activist to the hospital and advocated assimilation. At liberation, he turns to the Soviets and plans to study in Moscow; during the war, he rallies to the Americans. Today, his daughter is studying in the United States and wants to marry an American, he dreams of sending his son there, and on Sundays he hunts in the demilitarised zone.
Context
The text appeared in the July 1962 issue of the magazine Sasanggye and received the seventh Dong-in Prize the same year. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture sees in its hero the type of the opportunistic petty bourgeois, whose conduct changes with each regime and whose interior monologue betrays a distorted view of reality; it reads in it a satire of selfishness and conformism, and a critique of intellectuals who have lost all moral autonomy. The detached narration lets the character judge himself.
Who it is for
A short story with a single character, translated into French in a journal in 1980 and into English in book form in 2015.
Prizes and reception
Seventh winner of the Dong-in Prize; an English version already appeared in a collection of Korean short stories published in 1983.
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