COML1271 - Labor and Literature in Modern Korea: Remaking Ecologies on the Peninsula

Contemporary newspapers are packed with articles about the devastating effects of climate change and industrial pollution. This course explores what short stories and novels written in twentieth century Korea have to say about the changing ecology of the peninsula. More specifically, how do laboring bodies contribute to, and also, resist the creation of unsustainable local ecologies? The fiction we read is primarily concerned with how gendered bodies labor with the land in response to the contemporaneous socio-political climate including colonialcapitalism, national division, industrialization, authoritarianism, democracy, and neoliberalism.
We will read works that capture the everyday experience of laborers, gendered violence, and the ecological repercussions of nation-building projects through the lens of modern Korean literature. Throughout the course, students will develop their critical thinking skills in speaking and writing about the ecological, ethical, and political implications of literature. This course is interdisciplinary and encourages students to incorporate methodologies from their own fields of expertise and apply them to the class assignments. Materials are all in English and no prerequisite is necessary to enroll.