EURASIAN LITERATURE

South Korean Literature

OBJECTIVES

❖ To learn about a contemporary South

Korean short story reflecting family culture.
❖ To create a metaphorical symbol of one’s

own culture
❖ To connect metaphor to one’s family

situation
●After learning about Philippine Literature in the
previous quarter, 21st Contemporary Literature
will be introducing modern works from different
parts of the globe. The students will be able to
understand and appreciate literary texts in
various genres across international literature and
cultures.

How does the culture of a country affect its

literature?
Look back in your English classes in high
school and share you experiences with Asian
literature with a partner. Be prepared to
share to the class. Be guided by the following
questions:
Guide Question:
What Asian literature struck me the most?
What is the common quality between the
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literatures in the different parts of Asia?.

—
 Watch this video clip and then identify
what is the common trait of Asian
Literature
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p
A0mmxeDs4&t=10s
This template was created by Slidesgo

—
●The literature of Asia is a rich collection of stories that both
reflect the beliefs, culture, and feeling of the people. It covers
East, Central, West and South East Asia. Due to the enormity
of the coverage of its literature a reader or a researcher may
further divide its collection based on the country of origin,
religion, literary genre, language or historical perspective.

EURASIA is Europe and Asia oceans between them but not

geographically distinctly divided by landmass. The division of
Europe and Asia as two continents is more of political,
cultural, and economic move than geophysical.
KOREAN Literature
Classical Korean literature has its roots in traditional folk
beliefs and folk tales of the Korean peninsula. There are four
major traditional poetic forms:
hyangga ("native songs")
byeolgok ("special songs"), or changga ("long poems");
sijo ("current melodies");
gasa ("verses")
DEAR
Read the excerpt of Looking for the elephant
https://koreanliteraturenow.com/fiction/excerpts/
jo-kyung-ran-looking-elephant
About the Author
Jo Kyung Ran is a South Korean writer.
Jo’s work is famous for taking trivial, mundane, and everyday
occurrences and delicately describing them in subtle emotional tones.

About the Story

Looking for Elephant was published in 2002 in Korean. This was also
published in the website Fifty-two stories.

Context of the Story

It spans for a number of years in the life of the female narrator. It is
not in chronological order of events as they happened to the narrator
, but it is a recollection of her past memories
Process Questions

1.The first object mentioned in the story is a Polaroid

camera. Based on your earlier research about Polaroid
camera, and after reading the story, how is the object used
in the story
a.as metaphor
b.as magic
c.as representation of her relationship
d.as an object to move the story forward?

2.The story is not written in chronological order, why do you

think the writer used this style?

3.What makes the character of the narrator unique?

The Korean family in the story reflects an Asian
cultural practice – big family reunions. The family
drink, argue, and laugh together. How are your
family reunions? Are you noisy? Quiet? Musical?
Share you memorable family get-togethers.

The narrator used a Polaroid camera to capture

moments in her life. What memorable moment have
you captured in a photograph? Why is this
memorable?
Essential Learning
Students will give their own learning from the story. It can be in a
form of a quote or bible verses.