When the future disappears : the modernist imagination in late colonial Korea /

Poole's elegantly written, well-researched book deals with the politically complex and intellectually tangled cultural history of late colonial Korea, i.e., from the late 1930s to 1945. Although her interrogation of the modernist aesthetic in Korea revolves around a small number of works, Poole (Korean literature and cultural history, Univ. of Toronto) explores, through an innovative and detailed examination, significant ways in which Korean writers negotiated Japanese rule and so created a remarkable literature of image and silence. She examines the linguistic vitality and experiment central to modernism through the prism of the initial promotion and subsequent suppression of the Korean language, and she skillfully addresses the complex subject of cultural fascism and the controversial work of Choe Chaeso and Kim Namch'on. The extensive annotations are illuminating and the bibliography is comprehensive. Whereas most readers might be familiar already with the works discussed, the bibliography will be invaluable to those unfamiliar with the literature of this period. An excellent resource for anyone interested in Korean colonial history and literary studies and/or comparative and Asian literature. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. --Simon Wickhamsmith, Rutgers University