Reading Colonial Korea through Fiction is a compilation of thirteen original essays which was first serialized in a quarterly issued by the National Institute of Korean Language, Saekukosaenghwal (Living our National Language Anew) in a column entitled, "Our Fiction, Our Language" between 2004 to 2007. Although the original intent of the Institute was to elucidate on important features particular to "national fiction" and the superiority of "national language," instead Kim Chul's astute essays offers a completely different reading of how national literature and language was constructed. Through a series of culturally nuanced readings, Kim links the formation and origins of Korean language and fiction to modernity and traces its origins to the Japanese colonial period while demonstrating in a very lucid way how colonialism constitutes modernity and how all modernity is perforce colonial, given the imperial crucibles from which modernist claims emerged. For Kim, denying this reality can only lead to violent distortions as he eschews appeals to a preexisting framework, preferring instead to ground his theoretical insights in subtle, innovative readings of texts themselves.
Preface, Kim Chul Note on Romanization Foreword, Theodore Jun Yoo Chapter 1: Yo-dokari Tablet: The "Modernity" of Korean Language Chapter 2: "Oily touches on a canvas, stroking and scattering the pigments": Train Travel and Korean Fiction Chapter 3: "No o?? yogi wan?" What Brings you here?": Korean Fiction and the Standard Language Chapter 4: "The law is not afraid of yangban, is it?": Korean Fiction and Modern Law Chapter 5: "To talk it over in English": Korean Fiction and English Chapter 6: "Love is blind": Korean Fiction and Eroticism Chapter 7: "I wish to marry a mainland damsel": Korean Fiction and the "Mainland-Choson Marriage" Chapter 8: "She who returned like a return postcard": Korean Fiction and the Postal System Chapter 9: Coffee, Purande, Love Candy, and Nanjji: Culinary Lifestyle and Colonial Modernity Chapter 10: "The agitators are ing me": The Birth of Korean Language Chapter 11: "Is there any power greater than gold?": Gold and Korean Fiction Chapter 12: The Colonial Ventriloquists: Choson Writers Writing in Japanese Chapter 13: "When they've all been stripped naked, no part was good for beating": Korean Fiction and the August 15 Liberation Afterword, Theodore Hughes
