Sasanggye

Sasanggye

Categories	Literary magazine
Frequency	Monthly
Founded	1953
Final issue	1970
Country	South Korea
Based in	Seoul
Language	Korean

Sasanggye (Korean: 사상계; lit. World of Thought) was a monthly South Korean leftist literary magazine which was in circulation between 1953 and 1970. It was subject to censorship several times during its run.

History and profile

Sasanggye was started in 1953.[1] The magazine came out monthly,[2] and its headquarters was in Seoul.[3] The first issue of the magazine had a circulation of 3,000 copies.[4] Following the Korean War The Asia Foundation which was established in San Francisco, USA, in 1951 supported several South Korean publications and cultural projects, including Sasanggye.[5]

Sasanggye featured literary work by leading Korean writers. The monthly also covered political content one of which was the detailed analysis of the Political Parties Act in the 1960s.[2] It initiated a prize for Kim Dong-in, Korean writer, in 1955 four years after his death.[6] Kim Seungok published two short stories in the magazine.[7] Kim Chi-ha's poem Five Thieves was published in the magazine in 1970 which led to its confiscation.[8] Shortly after this incident Sasanggye folded in 1970.[1]

References

1. Inga Kim Diederich (2020). "Camelot in Korea: The Paradox of John F. Kennedy in Authoritarian South Korea, 1961-3". In Cyrus Schayegh (ed.). Globalizing the U.S. Presidency: Postcolonial Views of John F. Kennedy. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 246. ISBN 978-1-350-11852-2.
2. Kyonghee Lee (2022). "The dawn before one-party dominance: South Korea's road to party politics under the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, 1961–1963". In Ivan Sablin; Egas Moniz Bandeira (eds.). Parties as Governments in Eurasia, 1913–1991. Nationalism, Socialism, and Development. London; New York: Routledge. p. 285. doi:10.4324/9781003264972-11. ISBN 978-1-003-26497-2.
3. Seuk-Ryule Hong (2002). "Reunification Issues and Civil Society in South Korea: The Debates and Social Movement for Reunification during the April Revolution Period, 1960–1961". The Journal of Asian Studies. 61 (4): 1257. doi:10.2307/3096441. JSTOR 3096441.
4. Seungjin Han (2023). Literary Communities Shaping Democratic Values in Authoritarian Regimes: Censorship and Civil Society in South Korea, 1960s-1980s (MA thesis). Georgetown University. p. 8. hdl:10822/1082505.
5. Charles K. Armstrong (2003). "The Cultural Cold War in Korea, 1945–1950". The Journal of Asian Studies. 62 (1): 73. doi:10.2307/3096136. JSTOR 3096136.
6. Anela Ilijaš (2021). "A comparison of the motifs of artist's obsession in "The Tattooer" by Tanizaki Jun'ichirō and "Tale of a Mad Painter" by Kim Dong-in". Tabula (18): 73. doi:10.32728/tab.18.2021.6. S2CID 245470532.
7. "Kim Seungok: two short story reviews". Korea.net. 18 March 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
8. "Kim Ji-ha(김지하)". Digital Library of Korean Literature. Retrieved 26 August 2023.