A Distant And Beautiful Place

Somewhere on the periphery of Seoul, between the modern metropolis and the traditional farming communities, lies a "distant and beautiful place," the neighborhood of Wonmi-dong. Here, a young couple from the city struggles to make a home for themselves; a hapless "salary man" is forced into door-to-door sales after losing his job; a precocious seven-year-old questions the meaning of friendship and community. Everyone seems to be chasing the intangible dream of a better life. Set against the backdrop of South Korea's breakneck drive for industrialization and economic development in the 1980s, these compassionate and often humorous stories capture the essence of modern South Korean life-including the ubiquitous atmosphere of violence and fear that clouded the country prior to democratization in 1987. They also depict the Korean people's unfailing optimism and love of life. A Distant and Beautiful Place first appeared as a series of linked stories in literary journals between 1985 and 1987. It was published as the collection Wonmi-dong saramdul in 1987 and quickly became a best seller. Yang Kwija, one of South Korea's most respected and popular authors, has since published dozens of novels and shorter pieces.

Somewhere on the periphery of Seoul, between the modern metropolis and the traditional farming communities, lies a "distant and beautiful place," the neighborhood of Wonmi-dong. Here, a young couple from the city struggles to make a home for themselves; a hapless "salary man" is forced into door-to-door sales after losing his job; a precocious seven-year-old questions the meaning of friendship and community. Everyone seems to be chasing the intangible dream of a better life. Set against the backdrop of South Korea's breakneck drive for industrialization and economic development in the 1980s, these compassionate and often humorous stories capture the essence of modern South Korean life-including the ubiquitous atmosphere of violence and fear that clouded the country prior to democratization in 1987. They also depict the Korean people's unfailing optimism and love of life. A Distant and Beautiful Place first appeared as a series of linked stories in literary journals between 1985 and 1987. It was published as the collection Wonmi-dong saramdul in 1987 and quickly became a best seller. Yang Kwija, one of South Korea's most respected and popular authors, has since published dozens of novels and shorter pieces.

The Routledge Companion to Korean Literature consists of 35 chapters written by leaders in the field, who explore significant topics and who have pioneered innovative approaches. The collection highlights the most dynamic current scholarship on Korean literature, presenting rigorous literary analysis, interdisciplinary methodologies, and transregional thinking so as to provide a valuable and inspiring resource for researchers and students alike. This Companion has particular significance as the most extensive collection to date of English-language articles on Korean literature; it both offers a thorough intellectual engagement with current scholarship and addresses a broad range of topics and time periods, from premodern to contemporary. It will contribute to an understanding of literature as part of a broad sociocultural process that aims to put the field into conversation with other fields of study in the humanities and social sciences. While presenting rigorous and innovative academic research that will be useful to graduate students and researchers, the chapters in the collection are written to be accessible to the average upper-level undergraduate student and include only minimal use of academic jargon. In an effort to provide substantially helpful material for researching, teaching, and learning Korean literature, this Companion includes as an appendix an extensive list of English translations of Korean literature.

2019 Winner, Military Fiction, Independent Press Awards 2019 Gold Medal Winner, Historical Fiction, Military Writers Society of America 2019 Finalist, Military Fiction, American Fiction Awards This harrowing journey through World War I begins aboard the RMS Lusitania and ends on the edge of the world. For the Scots-American McReynolds brothers, World War I began with a German torpedo that slammed into the Lusitania. Despite frantic rescue efforts, they watch their family drown in front of their eyes. Having escaped the doomed ship in frigid waters off Ireland, they are rescued by four young Irishmen and together they vow to strike back in the war that was cutting a bloody swath through Europe in 1915. Searching for a unit that was bound to see action, they enlist with the vaunted Seaforth Highlanders, a Scottish regiment with a fearsome reputation. Soon they are tossed into the bloody cauldron of Gallipoli, where they must learn to fight and struggle to survive in one of the most ill-conceived and brutal campaigns of the war. Under a baking Aegean sun, surrounded by dead and maimed comrades, and facing a brutal and determined enemy sworn to Jihad, the brothers discover crucial differences in their reactions to the carnage of infantry combat. In the reeking, bloody trenches of Gallipoli, war becomes a very ugly school—where few live long enough to graduate. “From the sinking of the Lusitania to the battlefield cauldron of Gallipoli, RJ MacDonald weaves an action-packed story that leaves the reader breathless.” Military Writers Society of America “To fans of the genre of military fiction, RJ MacDonald’s, ‘A Distant Field’ might well be the book of the year." World War Media “... the battle sequences are both horrifying and exciting. This is a well-written novel, and if you are a collector of books on the First World War, I suggest you add this novel to your collection.” Historical Novel Society “It’s straight in at the deep end, as it opens with two brothers and their family on board the Lusitania when it gets torpedoed. This is breathless stuff... It’s all well written and a good yarn...” Militaria & History: The Armourer Magazine “RJ MacDonald's writing is vivid and gripping. Excellent historical fiction.” Professor Jonathan P. Roth, San Jose State University, Director, Burdick Military History Project “His mastery of descriptive art is reminiscent of some of John Steinbeck’s stories..." Professor Hal Elliott, Weber State University and Scots American Military Society “...a very compelling story... attention to detail sentence-for-sentence is stunning, and really builds the world while leaving the reader enough to imagine with." Cornerstones LC

Edie Burchill visits Milderhurst Castle where her mother stayed during World War II, discovering the three elderly sisters of the castle still alive but haunted by the secrets of their past life with their father, a famous children's author.

Writing Women in Korea explores the connections among translation, new forms of writing, and new representations of women in Korea from the early 1900s to the late 1930s. It examines shifts in the way translators handled material pertaining to women, the work of women translators of the time, and the relationship between translation and the original works of early twentieth-century Korean women writers. The book opens with an outline of the Chosôn period (1392-1910), when a vernacular writing system was invented, making it possible to translate texts into Korean--in particular, Chinese writings reinforcing official ideals of feminine behavior aimed at women. The legends of European heroines and foreign literary works (such as those by Ibsen) translated at the beginning of the twentieth century helped spur the creation of the New Woman (Sin Yôsông) ideal for educated women of the 1920s and 1930s. The role of women translators is explored, as well as the scope of their work and the constraints they faced as translators. Finally, the author relates the writing of Kim Myông-Sun, Pak Hwa-Sông, and Mo Yun-Suk to new trends imported into Korea through translation. She argues that these women deserve recognition for not only their creation of new forms of writing, but also their contributions to Korea’s emerging sense of herself as a modern and independent nation.

In this volume, Smith presents instructions for more approaches to relaxation than any other book on the market. The author provides word-for-word scripts for clinicians to teach them to implement all relaxation techniques using his ABC relaxation approach. The volume includes simple assessment questionnaires for determining relaxation needs and evaluating relaxation outcomes; precise instructions for making individualized relaxation tapes; and verbatim instructions for presenting tested ìfailproofî relaxation and stress management workshops. Techniques include: progressive relaxation, autogenic training, self-hypnosis, breathing exercises, yoga, imagery / visualization, meditation, and prayer. For clinical psychologists, psychotherapists, and trainers in the field of relaxation.