[New Release] and More

[Asia Economy Reporter Byunghee Park]

◆ Alice's Phonograph = Literary critic Yang Woon, a professor at Korea University's Liberal Education Institute, has released his second collection of criticism seven years after 'Pose and Propose.' It is the twelfth series of 'Minum's Criticism,' dealing with the theme of 'Potentiality.' Professor Yang Woon thinks that reading literary works is similar to listening to a record played on a phonograph. While the beautiful songs flowing from the record are enjoyable, he wrote the criticism with the intention of reading the noise mixed within. He wanted to read what was contained in the work beyond what the author intended to include. (Written by Yang Woon / Minumsa)

◆ A Walk Through 19th Century Russian Literature = Written by novelist Kim Yeon-kyung, who lectures on Russian literature at Seoul National University. The book is based on several papers Kim Yeon-kyung published in academic journals over more than 15 years of teaching Russian literature. It covers major works of Russian modern novels such as Pushkin's 'The Queen of Spades,' Gogol's 'The Tale of Petrovka,' Turgenev's 'Fathers and Sons,' Dostoevsky's 'The Brothers Karamazov,' Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina,' and Chekhov's short stories. In particular, it focuses on the philistinism of the human individual born alongside modernity as depicted in these works.

◆ Poets Scorched by Tragedy = Reflects on the lives and poems of 12 poets who died young, including Ki Hyung-do. Poet Jeong Ho-seung, in his recommendation, explained, "This book contains stories of poets whose lives themselves became a great poem, having long ago leapt over the boundary between life and death." The author, poet Woo Dae-sik, made efforts to get as close as possible to the lives of these early-deceased poets by visiting their hometowns and places they passed through, taking photographs, and interviewing their bereaved families and acquaintances. (Written by Woo Dae-sik / Saeum)