The Creation of the Modern Individual in Modern Korean Literature: Kim Tong-in’s Novella Mau˘m i yo˘t’un chayo˘ (A Person with a Weak Heart, 1919–1920)

Abstract

Kim Tong-in (1900–1951) strove to not only refine the form of the modern novel but also to create a new type of modern individual character. This paper examines Kim Tong-in’s novella Maŭm i yŏt’un chayŏ (A Person with a Weak Heart, 1919–1920), which draws on the modern Korean intellectual’s self-portrait of the inner self engaged in the pursuit of modern love. Through the analysis of Kim Tong-in’s novella, this paper will argue that the characterization of the modern individual as a superfluous man alienated from society and confined to his inner subject is a manifestation of the ambivalent status of the modern Korean intellectual in colonial Korea.