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Korean Literature’s Trajectory in Colombia scrap

by Sonia Alexandra Villamil Figueroago link April 1, 2024

Korean Literature’s Trajectory in Colombia 이미지

Korean literature is experiencing a surge in popularity in Colombia. After all the buzz from dramas, movies, and music, Korean literature is now flourishing and earning increasing acclaim. Korean literature has also appeared in local book fairs, and we finally have a book club dedicated to it. In addition, our country has published its first Korean book into Spanish. This has been a long journey, and I would like to share some parts of it with you.

In June of 2021, I founded the first, and as of yet only, Korean literary community in Colombia. It’s called 독서화, Reading Lovers. The main purpose of the club is to further our knowledge about Korea in a deeper way because we only get to see some aspects of its culture through the screen, with movies and dramas. There are forty-four members who participate in our monthly readings according to their book preferences. Due to difficulties, like the scarcity of Korean books translated into Spanish in our libraries or bookstores and the high prices of imported books, we don’t have many options to choose from. In the following table, you can see the books we have read and their ratings in chronological order.

 

Book Title

Average

1

Lee Hyeon-seo - La Chica de los Siete Nombres

(The Girl with Seven Names, tr. Isabel Margelí)

4,7

2

Min Jin Lee - Pachinko

(tr. Eva González Rosales)

4,4

3

Cho Nam-joo - Kim Ji-young, Nacida en 1982

(Kim Ji-young, Born in 1982, tr. Joo Hasun)

4,3

4

Kyung-Sook Shin - Por Favor, Cuida de Mamá

(Please Look After Mom, tr. Aurora Echevarría)

3,5

5

Han Kang - Actos Humanos

(Human Acts, tr. Sunme Yoon)

4,4

6

Lisa See - La Isla de las Mujeres del Mar

(The Island of Sea Women, tr. Gemma Roviga Ortega)

4,9

7

Won-Pyung Sohn - Almendra

(Almond, tr. José Manuel Moreno Cidoncha )

4,5

8

You-jeong Jeong - El Buen Hijo

(The Good Son, tr. Luis Alfredo de los Frailes)

4,2

9

Byung-Chul Han - Hiperculturalidad

(Hyperculture, tr. Florencia Gaillour)

3,8

10

Álvaro Valencia Tovar - Diario de Corea, 16 de junio de 1951

(Diary of Korea, 16 June 1951)

4,0

11

Yi Sang -

(Crow’s Eye View and Other Poems, tr.)

3,5

12

Kim Seung-Ok - Viaje a Mujin, Ciudad de la Niebla

(Record of a Journey to Mujin, tr. Lee Hyekyung, Romero Francisco Javier Carranza)

3,4

13

Anonymous – La canción de Chun-Hiang

(Chunhyangga, tr. Choi Nak-won, Ester Torres Simón)

4,6

14

Sun-mi Hwang - La Gallina Que Soñaba Con Volar

(The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, tr. Matuca Fernández de Villavicencio)

5,0

15

Han Kang - La Vegetariana

(The Vegetarian, tr. Sunme Yoon)

3,4

16

Kim Young-ha - Flor Negra

(Black Flower, tr. Hyesun Ko de Caranza)

4,3

17

Choi Inhun - La Plaza

(The Square, tr. Lim Hyo-sang)

4,1

18

Chung Serang - La Única en la Tierra

(The Only One on Earth, tr. Sunme Yoon)

4,6

19

Lee Kiho - Nos sale bien pedir perdón

(At Least We Can Apologize, tr. Alvaro Trigo Maldonado)

3,8

20

Chung Serang, Jang Ryujin and Sou Linne Baik - Laberintos de Neón

(Neon Labyrinth, tr. Alba Verea Pérez, Nicolás Braessas, Yumy Yun, et al.)

3,8

21

Ban Ki Moon - Hijo de la Guerra, Hombre de Paz

(Resolved, tr. Patricia Torres Londoño, Jaime Velásquez)

4,2

22

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim - Hierba

(Grass, tr. Joo Hasun)

4,5

23

Shiva Ryu - No Pongas un Punto Donde Dios Puso una Coma

(Don’t Put a Period Where God Put a Comma, tr. Carlos Miranda de las Heras)

3,5

24

Andrés Felipe Solano - Los Días de la Fiebre

(The Days of the Fever)

4,2


The following titles are not written by Korean authors, but we consider them equally valuable. The Island of Sea Women is about haenyeo and takes place on Jeju Island. It was written by Lisa See, a North American writer of Chinese heritage. Diario de Corea, 16 de junio de 1951 was written by Álvaro Valencia Tovar, a Colombian veteran who participated in the Korean War. Andrés Felipe Solano recounts his experience during the first days of COVID in Korea in Los Días de la Fiebre. While we wait for more book translations into Spanish, we’re diving into some fantasy stories written by Korean-American author Axie Oh.

In 2022 , South Korea was the guest of honor of Colombia’s most important Book Fair, which takes place in the capital city of Bogotá. The Korean pavilion received around 300,000 guests, and 1,109 copies of Korean books translated into Spanish were sold.1 In October, at the Book Fair in the city of Cali we talked about Korean literature and K-pop. I had the privilege to speak for forty minutes with a great response from the public.

Thanks to the Colombian publishing house Vestigio, the first Korean book to be translated from Korean into Spanish in Colombia was published in 2023. Semilla (Seed) is a selection of several short stories by Bora Chung. The translators are Cammy Cho, a Colombian who learned Korean at Sogang University and was trained at LTI Korea’s Translation Academy, and Yoonhee Kim .

With our book club we aim to boost awareness of Korean literature in Latin America, through online discussions and the use of social media. We hope the day will come when Colombia will stand as a leader with a great number of Korean titles translated into Spanish easily available in every bookshop, with more communities discussing and crafting related content, and a deepening passion that bridges our cultural differences.

[1] “Con517 mil visitantes cerró FILBo 2022; superó niveles prepandemia,” ValoraAnalitik, accessed July 21, 2023, https://www.valoraanalitik.com/2022/05/03/517-mil-visitantes-cerro-filbo-supero-niveles-prepandemia/?fbclid=IwAR0F9amgIMXLZ49_6ezgqaCXli02bxNU89lZ8VGSBjbQTC_ZJP_S59nBdXY.  

Writer 필자 소개

Sonia Alexandra Villamil Figueroa

Sonia Alexandra Villamil Figueroa

Sonia Alexandra Villamil Figueroa is a Colombian passionate about Korean Culture, teacher of basic Korean, promoter of cultural events, creator and administrator of the Literature Book Club 독서화.

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