@article{M002D00AD,
title = "We teach shame! By Park Wansŏ",
journal = "Academia Koreana",
year = "2007",
issn = "1520-7412",
doi = "",
author = "Translated by Teresa Kim",
keywords = "null",
abstract = "In a literary career dating from 1970 Pak Wan-sŏ has firmly established herself as one of the elder stateswomen (along with Pak Kyŏng-ni) of contemporary Korean literature, a household name both within Korea and in Korean communities abroad, and long respected in the Korean mundan (literary world). The story of her own life is compelling—entry to Seoul National University in 1950 followed shortly by withdrawal necessitated by the outbreak of the Korean War; two decades spent raising five children; and an award-winning career in letters that shows no signs of slowing. From the fabric of her life Pak has woven a body of literature that gives voice as no other author has to the trauma of civil war and territorial division as well as the subsequent upheavals in Korean society and culture. If there is one quality that has cemented Pak’s appeal to a mass audience, it is her uncanny ability to empathize with their lives and experiences. Her works draw a visceral, almost cathartic reaction from readers young and old who report hearing an authorial voice so clearly and directly it is almost as if they are in the physical presence of the narrator.

The two stories translated here are from earlier in Pak’s career and offer different styles and voices. “We Teach Shame!” (Pukkŭrŏum ŭl karŭch’imnida) was first published in August 1974 in Shindonga. Like other of her stories from this time, such as “In the Realm of the Buddha”(Puch’ŏnim kŭnch’ŏ 1973), “Camera and Workboots” (K’amera wa wak’ŏ, 1975), and “Winter Outing” (Kyŏul nadŭri, 1975), it is a dual narrative, juxtaposing the present with events two decades earlier during the civil war. The trauma of the war years is never far from the surface in the narrative present, the narrator’s displacement from Seoul during the January 1951 retreat launching her on a peripatetic lifestyle involving several locales and a succession of husbands. “Invitation” (Ch’odae) first appeared in October 1985 in Munhak sasang and is a more introspective narrative, one in which the narrator uses images of foulness and decay to represent her debased role as wife of a glad-handing businessman who must “invite” colleagues and spouses to buffet dinners at fancy hotels in order to succeed. A central theme in both stories is the hypocrisy of individuals who purport to live successful lives while bewitched by the trappings and status—in this case represented by imported versus domestic beef--of an increasingly affluent South Korean urban lifestyle.

The translations here were jointly awarded Grand Prize in the 4th Undergraduate Translation Workshop at the University of British Columbia in 2006 and are published in this issue of Acta Koreana with the kind permission of the author, Pak Wansŏ."
}