Selected Works of Korean Literature

Author: Jin Jingshan (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-10-01
Features: Compiling a series of original literary anthologies for countries or regions with different languages was a bold proposal put forward by the renowned scholar of foreign literature, the late Professor Wang Zuoliang of Beijing Foreign Studies University, several years ago. This plan originated in 1993. Under the commission of the National Education Commission's Professional Foreign Language Teaching Guidance Committee, the Institute of Foreign Literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University and the English Department, led by Professor Wang, held two consecutive series of lectures on teaching in 1993, attracting dozens of universities and nearly 100 teachers who taught, to jointly discuss how to teach the literary works of relevant countries to students in China's foreign language majors. As the discussion deepened, a prominent issue was placed before the teachers: despite being a culturally rich country, we had no original literary reading materials suitable for students in China's universities. Professor Wang Zuoliang immediately asked the teachers at Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press to take on this important task, saying, "Compiling and publishing such a series of original foreign literary anthologies is a meritorious and beneficial undertaking." After years of preparation, this series of original foreign literary anthologies was finally published. Organized jointly by the Research Department of Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, this series of original literary anthologies was created to meet the demand for original foreign literary reading materials in foreign language majors at universities. More than twenty teachers from Beijing Foreign Studies University and several other key universities, who had long been engaged in teaching foreign literature at universities, participated in the compilation. They all had experience of studying in the countries where their respective languages were spoken, and many of them had obtained doctorates in foreign literature abroad. This series of foreign literary anthologies covers eleven countries and regions, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Arab world, Latin America, Japan, and South Korea. Each anthology covers the entire process of literature in its respective country or region, from the early stages of literary development to the 1980s. Although each anthology has different emphases based on the unique characteristics of the literary development in each country, each one includes representative writers from all important stages of literary history and covers major literary forms such as poetry, prose, fiction, and drama. The focus of the anthologies is the works themselves, with concise "author introductions" and footnotes designed to help students understand the works, while the discussion questions after each selection aim to guide students, after grasping the language of the works, to delve deeper into their underlying meanings and extract more spiritual nourishment. Since these are anthologies, it is impossible to be all-encompassing, and the selection of writers and works often sparks some controversy. In this regard, the compilers of each anthology adopted a relatively pragmatic attitude. The classic writers of each country have been repeatedly weighed by generations of readers and gradually formed, recognized in their respective countries, and their representative works naturally appear in our anthologies. Therefore, the list of writers and works in our books is basically a traditional one. However, since the compilers are all Chinese teachers with teaching experience, they have fully taken into account the acceptance ability of Chinese students and the teaching characteristics of Chinese universities in the process of weighing and selecting. This is probably the main advantage of this literary anthology over imported foreign counterparts.