Whether or not we prefer it or not, the subsequent chapter of Korean literature could reside onscreen.
Korean literature, or Okay-lit, has emerged as a brand new international cultural frontier. Worldwide gross sales of Korean titles surged following Han Kang’s 2024 Nobel Prize win, however for a lot of Korean publishers, high-profile guide offers are not the tip aim; they’re only the start.
Taylor Bradley, co-founder of Honford Star publishing home, gave a lecture for Royal Asiatic Society Korea on Sept. 23, discussing how Korean publishers are more and more evaluating new works for cinematic potential.
Bradley pointed to the instance of Safehouse Inc. Korea, an organization that’s, as he famous, “designed to promote IP content material — initially they weren’t even a publishing firm.” Right this moment, whereas Safehouse definitely publishes books, Bradley emphasised that its actual enterprise is in promoting tales geared toward reaching a worldwide market.
Bradley’s personal U.Okay.-based Honford Star is proof of the success that translated East Asian media can take pleasure in overseas. Co-founded by Bradley and Anthony Chicken, the unbiased writer acquired its begin in 2015 after a dialog at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub in London — one among Charles Dickens’ reported haunts, in accordance with Bradley. From there, the 2 jumped into publishing with a dream of bridging literary worlds.
Two titles have since earned worldwide acclaim. Honford Star obtained Worldwide Booker Prize recognition for “Cursed Bunny,” written by Bora Chung and translated by Anton Hur (shortlisted in 2022), and “Ninth Constructing,” written by Zou Jingzhi and translated by Jeremy Tiang (longlisted in 2023).
After the preliminary success of the English translation of “Cursed Bunny,” Bradley recalled the Korean writer touting its worldwide recognition, even redesigning the Korean cowl to match Honford Star’s model. The expertise underscored a shift Bradley has seen within the mindset of bigger publishing homes right here — they’re more and more seeing new titles as potential international media properties.
To clarify the worldwide success of choose Korean novels, webtoons and different media continuously tailored for movies, TV or streaming, Bradley cited three principal elements: cultural local weather, funding and new skilled networks.
He talked about a key cultural driving issue: BTS. “BTS is so standard that books that BTS reads turn into standard in English,” he mentioned, noting how group chief RM gave an actual increase to “Kim Ji-young, Born 1982,” written by Cho Nam-ju, after he was seen studying it in public.
Bradley additionally pointed to the rising reputation of “therapeutic fiction” as an unlikely industrial success. He defined that the majority therapeutic fiction titles characteristic low-stakes, comforting storylines, with a protagonist down on their luck, and that such a story is gaining reputation globally, particularly within the postpandemic period.
These are all distinct Korean cultural forces, however every has gained vital worldwide attain, underscoring the truth that Korean literature, like different media, doesn’t exist in isolation.
Funding for Okay-lit, in the meantime, has been pushed by beneficiant help from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), which helps cut back the monetary dangers related to publishing by masking translation prices. Bradley famous that LTI Korea has persistently been a key participant in getting Okay-lit out into the general public with only a few strings hooked up for publishers.
“It’s not simply the cash that helps, but it surely’s the truth that it’s offsetting a whole lot of danger for us,” he mentioned.
He argued that as a result of LTI Korea permits overseas corporations to customise publications based mostly available on the market in their very own nations, somewhat than stipulating what works get translated, Korean literature is turning into extra commercially profitable in comparison with different nations that will implement tighter restrictions.
Together with funding, Bradley mentioned new skilled networks have expanded as outward-looking publishers, translators and brokers have entered the sector, reshaping the interpretation area, even going as far as to say that translators are doubling as their very own entrepreneurs. He cited Anton Hur as “a celebrity translator” — one whose title has turn into synonymous with nice translation, and thus helps drive gross sales.
Bradley acknowledged that Honford Star’s personal catalog has developed over the previous decade, together with the cultural shift. Initially devoted to reviving forgotten classics that might in any other case “not see the sunshine of day,” the writer has pivoted to straddle the realms of sci-fi, fantasy and literary fiction — a mixture Bradley referred to as “the candy spot.”
Bradley’s lecture repeatedly addressed a “new wave” within the publishing sphere. Safehouse is probably the clearest signpost of the place Okay-lit is headed — with streaming offers in thoughts from the beginning. Two of its titles have been tailored into the “SF8” tv collection (2020), underscoring Bradley’s level that “it’s not nearly promoting books, however promoting films, webtoons, streaming.”
For Bradley, the globalization of Okay-lit is nothing new. What’s new is the size and the display. Bradley famous that he expects Korean literature to expertise a steady growth over the subsequent 10 years “as a counterpart to elevated Korean translations overseas.”
He concluded, “As translation is a door for Korea into the world, a door has each side.”
And in a market the place a breakout adaptation can elevate a novel to international bestseller standing, creating tales for the display could symbolize the way forward for — and a brand new blueprint for — Korean publishing.
Emily Serby is the host of Seoul Silent E book Membership and a literary designer/advertising and marketing advisor presently working with dbBOOKS. She’s dedicated to constructing a extra participating literary group in Seoul.
