Three Generations

Yom Sang-Seop

Des. 2006 · Archipelago

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Touted as one of Korea’s most important works of fiction, Three Generations (published in 1931 as a serial in Chosun Ilbo) charts the tensions in the Jo family in 1930s Japanese occupied Seoul. Yom’s keenly observant eye reveals family tensions withprofound insight. Delving deeply into each character’s history and beliefs, he illuminates the diverse pressures and impulses driving each. This Korean classic, often compared to Junichiro Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sisters, reveals the country’s situation under Japanese rule, the traditional Korean familial structure, and the battle between the modern and the traditional. The long-awaited publication of this masterpiece is a vital addition to Korean literature in English.

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Yom Sang-seop was born in 1897 in Seoul. In 1919, he participated in an independence movement against the Japanese,for which he was jailed. He published his first stories, Hakjigwang and Samgwang in the same year. In 1953, he received the Seoul Culture Award. He was also awarded the Asia Freedom Literature Award in 1956, as well as the National Academy ofArts’ Contribution Award in 1957. In 1962, he received the March 1st Culture Award and the Korean President’s Medal. He died in 1963.

Yu Young-nan’s translations include Pak Wan-so’s The Naked Tree (Cornell East Asia Series, 1995), Yi In-hwa’s Everlasting Empire (EastBridge, 2001), Yi Mu-young’s Farmers (Homa & Sekey, 2002), and HanSung-won’s Father and Son, co-translated by Julie Pickering (Homa & Sekey, 2002). She was awarded the prestigious Daesan Literature Award in 2002 for Everlasting Empire, and Father and Sonwas named a Kiriyama Pacific Rim Notable Book. Kim Chie-sou is a literary critic and a professor of French and Korean literature at Ewha Womans University. He received a doctorate from Université de Provence. His works include Space of Korean Fiction and Truth of Fiction.