GTLF2022: Cursed Bunny - Bora Chung & Anton Hur

In this special session, Amalina Kamal spoke to Korean writer-translator duo Bora Chung and Anton Hur, finalists for the 2022 International Booker Prize. The discussion centred on Cursed Bunny, Bora Chung's genre-defying collection of short stories. Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society. Anton Hur's translation skilfully captures the way Chung's prose effortlessly glides from being terrifying to wryly humorous.

[@stephanielaszik]

When I bought my Korean copy of Cursed Bunny from a Korean bookstore, the shop owner took the book to ring it up and immediately said: "Oh, this book is so funny!" After our conversation, I walked away shocked by the difference in how a Korean read the stories vs. how I read the stories. To me, Cursed Bunny is one of the most disturbing collections I've read. It was so fun and amazing to me to become aware of our different understandings of a text. I think this is why I continue to read Korean literature: it has a raw, sometimes disturbing, and more honest approach to life than those of US and UK books.