Description Munhakdongne Collection of Korean Literature, Volumes 21–25 A Shining Achievement in Korean Literature! A New Step Toward the Culmination of 21st-Century Korean Literature 021 The Balladeer · Selected Novellas and Short Stories by Hwang Sok-yong 022 Gray Snowman · Selected Novellas and Short Stories by Choi Yun 023 The Hundred-Year Inn · A Novel by Im Chul-woo 024 The Black Deer · A Novel by Han Kang 025 If One Day Is Different from Another, Why Is That? · Selected Novellas and Short Stories by Bae Suah Having introduced its first twenty volumes to mark Munhakdongne's twentieth anniversary, the Munhakdongne Collection of Korean Literature continues its steady journey with five more volumes. By rediscovering the shining achievements of Korean literature and calling them into the here and now, this collection has long dreamed of a better future for Korean literature. As part of its ongoing effort to respond to a changing literary landscape and expand the territory of literature, it has actively sought out and embraced the achievements of contemporary writers, leading new changes in the collection itself. This second set continues that mission, bringing together the wide-ranging literary achievements of writers from different generations—Hwang Sok-yong, Choi Yun, Im Chul-woo, Han Kang, and Bae Suah—adding rich diversity to the canon of 21st-century Korean literature. The Munhakdongne Collection of Korean Literature will continue to move forward, step by step, to elevate the value of Korean literature and connect its unique qualities with the universality of world literature. Volume 24 of the Munhakdongne Collection of Korean Literature is The Black Deer by Han Kang—a writer who, since her debut, has consistently offered readers and critics alike an intense literary experience through sophisticated, striking imagery, elegant yet powerful descriptions, and a solid narrative structure that ties it all together. The Black Deer (1995), which vividly captures the pain residing in the depths of existence through the full engagement of the senses, is Han Kang's first novel—completed after three full years of writing following her 1993 literary debut. Upon its release, the novel's tightly woven narrative and deeply resonant, poetic prose earned it high praise, with literary critic Seo Young-chae remarking that it "foretells the birth of a young master." The novel's title comes from an imaginary creature—the "black deer"—that lives deep underground in a narrow rock crevice. With beautiful, sturdy antlers and sharp teeth, this creature's sole wish is to see the sky, if only once in its lifetime. But when it asks a miner to show it the way out, the miner demands its antlers and teeth as the price. The more desperately the black deer longs for sunlight, the deeper into darkness it tumbles—a fate that mirrors the lives of the novel's characters. One day, in the middle of a busy downtown street, a woman runs naked down the road in broad daylight and then vanishes. Two people who know her set out to find her, armed with only a few clues. The Black Deer casts a somber light on the deep abysses each of them confronts along the way. In following these characters as they step into the depths—even without knowing whether they will ever return to the world above—we may, paradoxically, find ourselves tracing not darkness, but light. "I remember the pleasure of all things being endlessly, creatively reborn. I loved the world as seen through the viewfinder. The world shed its former shabby, suffocating shell and pressed against me as a fresh, breathing body. Each time, I trembled with joy. But joy for what, exactly? I believed the photographs I began taking were proof of my life. But proof of what, exactly?" (p. 98) "Myung-yun did not believe in things like love that transcends death. Love was so powerless that, simply because two people were far apart, it could lose even the ability to sense the other's pain, illness, or death—just as he now had no way of knowing where Ui-seon was or what state she was in, and no physical pain of hers reached him." (p. 141) "When a single person's spirit explodes, how great a change can that event bring about?" (p. 201) "I grew up in that darkness, and it was precisely because of that darkness that I grew a little stronger. Growing accustomed to that sacred blue light, as a child I learned to be silent instead of whining or complaining of boredom. I dimly realized that only when I stopped longing for something would I finally find peace."