The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Korean Poetry [Hardcover]

Peter H. Lee (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0231111126 | ISBN-13: 978-0231111126 | Publication Date: December 15, 2002 0

This groundbreaking anthology, edited by the veteran scholar who founded the field of Korean literature in the West, offers a representative selection from the four major genres of native Korean poetry: the Silla songs known as hyangga, Koryo songs, sijo, and kasa. The performance of oral songs was central to the religious life of ancient Koreans, and their passion for song and poetry is as evident in these texts today as it was to the earliest Chinese observers. Therefore, in addition to such classics as the Songs of Flying Dragons, the great eulogy-cycle compiled from 1445 to 1447, the volume also includes folk songs and shamanist narrative songs. Within each genre works are arranged chronologically so that the reader can trace artistic developments over time. The translations, many commissioned especially for this volume, have been prepared by distinguished scholars and literary translators and are fully annotated, making them ideal for use in the classroom.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Korean Poetry refreshingly builds in particular on oral lyrical tradition, customarily marginalized as peripheral in the canonical scheme of Korean literature... [It] is a valuable new resource for serious study in Korean poetic tradition.

(Chan E. Park Journal of Asian Studies 12/17/2006)

[A] Groundbreaking anthology.

(Dr. Yearn Hong Choi The Washington Times )

[A] ground breaking anthology.

(Choi Yearn-hong Korea Times )

Review

This is a major cultural event, one owed above all to the unrivaled knowledge, devotion and good taste of Peter H. Lee. It is a full treasury of poems short and long, in Korean and Chinese, from the hut and from the palace, showing the Korean genius for adaptable originality amid intermittent Chinese hegemony and Japanese incursion. English readers have at last access to a full sample of a literature that now exists for them for the first time.

(Earl Miner, Princeton University 5/5/08)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (December 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231111126
• ISBN-13: 978-0231111126
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,609,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)