The Grass Roof
by
Younghill Kang
4.08 · Rating details · 25 ratings · 4 reviews
autobiographical fiction > korea > fiction > 20th century Korea > history > 20th century > koreans > japan > fiction young men > korea fiction
LC Classification PS3521.A444 G7
GET A COPY
Kobo
Online Stores ▾
Book Links ▾
Hardcover, 356 pages
Published 1931 by Charles Scribner's Sons
LISTS WITH THIS BOOK
Average rating4.08 ·
Rating details
· 25 ratings · 4 reviews
Sep 16, 2018V rated it it was amazing
4,5
Younghill Kang is a divisive figure in the study of Asian American literature, in no small part due to how his work was read and criticized by his majority audience. There is no doubt that "Westerners" (i.e. European-descended White American people) is the audience here, which is reflected in language, explanations, and message-directing. Kang campaigned hard for US involvement to push back the Japanese occupation, after all. The book is ALSO however, an extraordinary record and telling of life in Korea in the early occupied years, told from the perspective of one who could compare and contrast from personal experience, as well as both Classical and Western-educated background. The snap quick descent into violence and trauma is visceral and difficult to read, especially knowing what was happening at the time to Classical scholars like Han and the Korean literati at the time (of course not even to breathe of the horror happening to the common people, and not even to breathe of what would soon occur due to inaction by Kang's audience). The book is not without criticism of Confucian Korea pre-Occupation and Westernization, and it is compelling to read. There are arguments to be made about all aspects of the book, though it has instead trended toward embarrassed obscurity -- it is very difficult to find its complete version, long long out of print (Kang's work pointedly was not re-printed as part of the Asian American Literature vanguard). The sequel, East Goes West, is a story of disillusionment and cultural and spiritual homelessness, an alienation from self that is made deeper by reading of the ambiguity created by old encountering new here in The Grass Roof.
There is also some debate around whether or not we can call The Grass Roof and East Goes West memoir or autobiographical novel (which does not imply autobiography so much as being true to personal or common experience for the purposes of reckoning.) I fall to the latter side, but whether or not genre truly impacts the reading is up to the individual.
Anyhow, I deeply enjoyed to read it. Form your own opinion. There is far more to the book than what it can teach us of history, though it does do that. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · see review
Apr 25, 2019Andrew added it
Shelves: american-fiction, pre-wwii-american-fiction
An old-fashioned autobiographical novel, which didn't seem to have much point other than to educate Americans about the ways of old Korea... a relic of a time when nice liberals in America and Britain still talked about "the family of man" and such things. But I suppose it was nice enough as a glimpse into this world, even if I can't say that it was especially original or unusual. There's no real reason to recommend it, but hey, not bad. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Feb 16, 2011siby added it
A very interesting book about a Korean boy turning man at the beginning of the 20th century that reads so well you will probably finish it in one day. I believe it provides useful insight into the history and cultural context of the Far East no matter if you know practically nothing about it or just need to fill in the lesser known Korean aspect.
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Sep 30, 2021Peter A rated it really liked it
Shelves: autobiography, historical-fiction, memoir
The Grass Roof covers the protagonist Han Chang-Pa’s life as a child, then a teenager, until he immigrates to the United States. The first section (Book 1) depicts a tranquil lifestyle, growing up in a small village, Song-Dune-Chi, meaning the village of the pine trees, in present day North Korea’s Hamkyong (some 300 miles north of Seoul). The protagonist is being groomed for a future town scholar and leader. There are entertaining adventures of thwarting a male cousin’s tricks on his female cousin, of absent-mindedly leaving his house at night, without clothing, to be seen by a female neighbor, and another scene where the ox he was responsible for saved him during a large flood. We also get descriptions of weddings and funeral services. This section draws to an end with the Japanese arrival in Korea, and a Japanese officer striking his grandmother.
The second section (Book 2) described the protagonist’s desire to learn, leaving the village against his father's wishes, walking to Seoul using a few coins, his charm and stealth. We learn about his education in Seoul, his expulsion from Japanese school for refusing to apologize for the ignorance of a Japanese teacher, and his pluck to board a train (as a porter) and a boat to Japan, where he enrolls in school. In the last sections, he returns to Korea, works at various jobs, trying to find a way to get to the United States, and being part of the larger 1919 March declaration of independence.
The first book is lighter in tone; the second part heavier, with increased dislike for the Japanese occupation. The value in reading this is that is captures one person’s image of Korea in that time period, a snapshot of life. It also reveals his biases towards Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans.
He wrote this book ten years after arriving in the United States. Its style simple, but at time eloquent, as the talks about various issues, such as the beauty of Chinese poetry, the serenity of his Korean village, the passion of independence, and his feelings about a woman, whose name he never knew, who captured his imagination of beauty and intelligence. He named her Princess Immortality. He writes, “But she whose name we never know, whose soul we never capture, whose background and whose boundaries are ever hidden, she alone is immorality.… Time goes, man gets old, everything changes, but memory of the beautiful stays in the heart.”
The author wrote a sequel to this book, named East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee. This book describes his frustration encountered after reaching his dreamed about country. It talked about the racism he encountered and was less well liked by the critics.
Yet, through is writing he has captured a perhaps idealized version of Korea, and is often referred to as the “father of Korean American literature.”
FB. Written in 1931, the book provides a depiction of life at the time of transition of Korea from independent to a colony of Japan; of observations on culture and its tearing because of change; of biases among the various nationals in East Asia; of a nationalist passion in Korea; and of a determination, by any means, to achieve whatever goal the protagonist has. At times idealize, and at times artful in description.
Comments on Editions
This review is based on the 1966 Follett re-issue of The Grass Roof.
The Grass Roof was originally published in 1931 by Scribners, re-issued by Follett Publishing Company in 1966. It comprises two books. Book 1 covers the authors (perhaps idealized) life in the village of Song-Dune-Chi, or “The Village of the Pine Trees,” in Hamkyong (300 miles north of Seoul). Book 2 is a darker portion of his life, when the protagonist, HAN Chang-Pa, comes to grips with the Japanese control of Korea and its disruptive influence on life, tradition, culture, and family.
Book 1 was published a 1975 by Norton, paired with another memoir The Yalu Flows by Mirok Li. See my review for this edition at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Other References on the Author
Younghill Kang. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younghi...
Kang, Younghill 1903-1972. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/edu...
Younghill Kang
Younghill Kang | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 5, 1898 (May 10 in a lunisolar calendar) Hongwon, South Hamgyong, Korea |
| Died | December 2, 1972 Satellite Beach, Florida, United States |
| Occupation | Author, lecturer |
| Nationality | Korean |
| Period | 1930s |
| Notable works | The Grass Roof; East Goes West |
 Literature portal | |
| Younghill Kang | |
| Hangul | 강용흘 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 姜龍訖 |
| Revised Romanization | Gang Yong-heul |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kang Yonghŭl |
Younghill Kang (June 5, 1898 — December 2, 1972, Korean name 강용흘) was an important early Asian American writer.[1] He is best known for his 1931 novel The Grass Roof (the first Korean American novel[2]) and its sequel, the 1937 fictionalized memoir East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee. He also wrote an unpublished play, Murder in the Royal Palace, which was performed both in the US and in Korea.[3] He has been called "the father of Korean American literature."[4]
Life and work[edit]
As a child in Korea, Kang was educated in both Confucian and Christian missionary schools.[5] In 1921, he fled Korea because of his anti-Japanese, pro-independence activism; he went first to Canada (where he briefly studied at Dalhousie University), then to the United States.[2] He received his B.S. from Boston University in 1925 and an Ed.M. in English education from Harvard University in 1927.[2]
Work[edit]
Kang at first wrote in Korean and Japanese, switching to English only in 1928 and under the tutelage of his American wife, Frances Keeley.[5] He worked as an editor for the Encyclopædia Britannica and taught at New York University, where his colleague Thomas Wolfe read the opening chapters of his novel The Grass Roof and recommended it to Scribners publishing house.[5]
The book was admired by such other authors as Rebecca West and H. G. Wells, and was considered for a movie adaptation by Hollywood.[6] The Grass Roof was well received in its time, since it seemed to confirm American disdain for Korea. East Goes West, however, criticized the United States and therefore was less popular until the multicultural movement gave it renewed attention.
In addition to The Grass Roof and East Goes West, Kang translated Korean literature into English and reviewed books for The New York Times.[5] Kang also traveled in Europe for two years on a Guggenheim Fellowship, curated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and worked as an Asian expert for the U.S. government in both U.S. Military Office of Publications and the Corps Office of Civil Information.[2][6]
Kang received the Halperine Kaminsky Prize, the 1953 Louis S. Weiss Memorial Prize, and an honorary doctorate from Koryo University.[6]
The Grass Roof[edit]
The Grass Roof uses the character of Chungpa Han to depict Kang's life in Korea and to explain his decision to leave. Han chooses to leave Korea rather than join the popular resistance movement fighting for independence from the Japanese; he has been influenced by Western literature and prefers the promises of individualism in the West to the mass movements and nationalism and emphasis on family connections that he sees in Korea, which he views as dying.
East Goes West[edit]
East Goes West continues the story of Han (standing in for Kang) and his life in the United States, where he notices how involved his fellow immigrants are in Korean independence and how much they hope to return to their native land. His distance from his fellow immigrants increases his sense of loneliness in his new country; Moreover, his hopes for a new life in the West are never realized, as his dreams exceed the reality of American opportunity at that time. He befriends two other Koreans—Jum and Kim—who are also interested in becoming truly American, but they too have never been able to enter fully into American society. He hopes that furthering his schooling will be the solution, but even a scholarship to college does not solve his problems. As the novel ends, Han has found most of his dreams dashed, except for the Buddhist hope of a life beyond this one.
References[edit]
- ^ "Kang Yongheul" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at: http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do?method=author_detail&AI_NUM=438&user_system=keuser
- ^ a b c d Bio at Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program
- ^ Kim, Wook-Dong (2017-02-15). "Murder in the Royal Palace: A Four-Act Play by Younghill Kang". Asian Theatre Journal. 34 (1): 152–168. doi:10.1353/atj.2017.0008. ISSN 1527-2109. S2CID 157363730.
- ^ Seiwoong Oh. "Younghill Kang (1903-1972)." in Asian American Autobiographers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook pp.149-158.
- ^ a b c d *Bio at The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Fifth Edition
- ^ a b c James Livingston, "Younghill Kang (1903-1972)." in Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook pp.127-131
Critical studies[edit]
- Jeon, Joseph J. "Koreans in Exile: Younghill Kang and Richard E. Kim." IN: Srikanth and Song, The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2015. pp. 123–138.
- Roh, David. "Scientific Management in Younghill Kang’s East Goes West: The Japanese and American Construction of Korean Labor.” MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States 37.1 (2012): 83-104.
- Kuo, Karen J. Lost Imaginaries: Images of Asia in America, 1924-1942. Dissertation, U of Washington, 2006.
- Szmanko, Klara. "America Is in the Head and on the Ground: Confronting and (Re-)Constructing 'America' in Three Asian American Narratives of the 1930s." Interactions: Aegean Journal of English and American Studies/Ege Ingiliz ve Amerikan Incelemeleri Dergisi, 2006 Fall; 15 (2): 113-23.
- Sorensen, Leif. "Re-Scripting the Korean-American Subject: Constructions of Authorship in New Il Han and Younghill Kang." Genre, 2006; 39 (3): 141-156.
- Lee, A. Robert. "Younghill Kang" IN: Madsen, Asian American Writers. Detroit, MI: Gale; 2005. pp. 159–62
- Knadler, Stephen. "Unacquiring Negrophobia: Younghill Kang and Cosmopolitan Resistance to the Black and White Logic of Naturalization." IN: Lawrence and Cheung, Recovered Legacies: Authority and Identity in Early Asian American Literature. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP; 2005. pp. 98–119
- Todorova, Kremena Tochkova. "An Enlargement of Vision": Modernity, Immigration, and the City in Novels of the 1930s. Dissertation, U of Notre Dame, 2003.
- Oh, Sandra Si Yun. Martyrdom in Korean American Literature: Resistance and Paradox in East Goes West, Quiet Odyssey, Comfort Woman and Dictee. Dissertation, U of California, Berkeley, 2001.
- Lee, Kun Jong. "The African-American Presence in Younghill Kang's East Goes West." CLA Journal, 2002 Mar; 45 (3): 329-59.
- Lew, Walter K. "Grafts, Transplants, Translation: The Americanizing of Younghill Kang." IN: Scandura and Thurston, Modernism, Inc.: Body, Memory, Capital. New York, NY: New York UP; 2001. pp. 171–90
- Knadler, Stephen. "Unacquiring Negrophobia: Younghill Kang and the Cosmopolitan Resistance to the Black and White Logic of Naturalization." Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 2000 Spring-Summer; 4 (3): 37 paragraphs.
- Livingston, James. "Younghill Kang (1903- )." IN: Nelson, Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood; 2000. pp. 127–31
- Huh, Joonok. "'Strangest Chorale': New York City in East Goes West and Native Speaker." IN: Wright and Kaplan, The Image of the Twentieth Century in Literature, Media, and Society. Pueblo, CO: Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, University of Southern Colorado; 2000. pp. 419–22
- Kim, Joanne H. "Mediating Selves: Younghill Kang's Balancing Act." Hitting Critical Mass: A Journal of Asian American Cultural Criticism, 1999 Fall; 6 (1): 51-59.
- Lew, Walter K. "Before The Grass Roof: Younghill Kang's University Days." "Korean American Fiction" special issue of Korean Culture 12.1 (Spring 1998): 22-29.
- Strange, David. "Thomas Wolfe's Korean Connection." The Thomas Wolfe Review, 1994 Spring; 18 (1): 36-41.
- Lee, Kyhan. "Younghill Kang and the Genesis of Korean-American Literature." Korea Journal, 1991 Winter; 31 (4): 63-78.
See also[edit]
강용흘
 | 이 문서의 내용은 출처가 분명하지 않습니다. (2013년 1월) |
강용흘(姜龍訖, 1903년 6월 5일 ~ 1972년 12월 2일)은 한국계 미국인 작가다. 1931년에 쓴 첫 한국계 미국인 소설 초당(The Grass Roof) 등이 유명하며 한국계 미국인 문학의 아버지라 불린다.
일생[편집]
한국에서 유학과 기독교식 교육을 받았다. 함흥 영생중학교를 졸업하고 1921년 독립 운동을 위해 한국을 떠났다. 처음에 캐나다로 갔다가 후에 미국으로 가서 보스턴 대학교에서 수학하고 하버드 대학교에서 학위 수여를 받았다. 그 후 브리태니커 백과사전에서 편집자로 일하고 뉴욕 대학교에서 학생들을 가르쳤다. 그 후 행복한 숲(The Happy Grove), 동양인이 본 서양(East Goes West) 등을 썼다. 한국 문학을 영어로 번역하기도 했다.
姜龍訖
 |
| 姜龍訖 | |
|---|---|
| 各種表記 | |
| ハングル： | 강용흘 |
| 漢字： | 姜龍訖 |
| 発音： | カン・ヨンフル |
| 日本語読み： | きょうりゅうきつ |
姜 龍訖（カン・ヨンフル、1898年 - 1972年）は、在米韓国人の小説家。常に彼は、作品の素材を韓国や韓国人から見出している。
略歴 [編集]
1898年に咸鏡南道洪原で生まれる。咸洪永生中学校を卒業。三・一独立運動後、アメリカに渡りボストン大学で医学、ハーバード大学で英米文学を専攻した。ブリタニカ百科事典の編集委員を歴任した。代表作は『草堂、The Grass Roof』で、日本統治時代 （日帝強占期）や三・一独立運動を背景とした自伝的な最初の英文長編小説である。この作品は1931年に出版され、1947年金星七によって第1巻は韓国語に翻訳されたが、第2巻は韓国語には翻訳できていない。しかし、ドイツ、フランス、ユーゴスラビア、チェコスロバキア等、10カ国において翻訳、刊行されている。
その後、ローマ大学、ミュンヘン大学、パリ大学等で研究を続け、ニューヨーク大学等で東洋文化や比較文学を講義する傍ら、小説『幸せな森、The Happy Grove』(1934)、『東洋人が見た西洋、East Goes West』や、戯曲『王室での殺人』(1935)などを発表した。
その他、翻訳書として『東洋の詩、Oriental Poetry』(1929)、韓龍雲の『あなたの沈黙、Nim-e Chimmuk』(1971、妻フランシス・キリーとの共訳)がある。英語教材やアメリカ史関係の叙述なども残している。
ソウル大学校文理科大学教授を歴任したりもした彼は、常に韓国や韓国人から作品の素材を見出した。アメリカ作家のパール・S・バック(Pearl Sydenstricker Buck)により「東方の最も輝やかしい叡智」と激賞されたこともある。
作品[編集]
- 小説
- 『幸せな森、The Happy Grove』(1934年)
- 『東洋人が見た西洋、East Goes West』
- 『草堂、The Grass Roof』(1931年)
- 戯曲『王室での殺人』(1935)
- 翻訳書
- 韓龍雲の『あなたの沈黙、Nim-e Chimmuk』(1971、妻フランシス・キリーとの共訳)
- 『東洋の詩、Oriental Poetry』(1929)
- =
=
Kang, Younghill 1903–1972
Views 2,156,374Updated
Kang, Younghill 1903–1972
PERSONAL: Born May 10, 1903, in Song-Dune-Chi, Hamgyong, Korea; died following a stroke, December 11, 1972, in Satellite Beach, FL; immigrated to United States, 1921; married Frances Keely (a writer), 1929; children: one daughter, two sons. Education: Attended university in Yungsaing, Korea, 1981; attended Dalhousie University, 1921, Boston University, 1925, and Harvard University, 1927; also studied in Rome, Italy, 1933, Munich, Germany, 1934, and Paris, France, 1935.
CAREER: Writer and translator. Early work included writing for Encyclopedia Britannica. New York University, New York, NY, instructor in English, Oriental culture, and comparative literature, c. 1920s; University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, William V. Moody lecturer, 1933; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, curatorial staff member for Far-Eastern collection; U.S. Military Government Office of Publications, Korea, chief of publications, late 1940s; advisor to Twenty-fourth Corps Office of Civil Information, Korea.
MEMBER: Authors' League of America, Authors Guild, American Oriental Society.
AWARDS, HONORS: Two Guggenheim fellowships, 1933–35; Halperine Kaminsky prize (France), 1937; Louis S. Weiss Memorial Prize for Adult Education, New School of Social Research, 1953; honorary D.Litt., Korea University, 1970.
WRITINGS:
(Translator) Translations of Oriental Poetry, 1929.
The Grass Roof (novel), Scribner's (New York, NY), 1931, reprinted, Norton (New York, NY), 1975.
The Happy Grove (for young readers; based on selections from The Grass Roof), illustrated by Leroy Baldridge, Scribner's (New York, NY), 1933.
East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee (novel), Scribner's (New York, NY), 1937, reprinted, Kaya Production (New York, NY), 1997.
(Translator) Michiro Maruyama, Anatahan, 1954.
No comments:
Post a Comment