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Jack London and Korea

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Abstract

Broadly historical in its approach, this chapter explores the extent to which Jack London obtained material for his writing from the experiences he had while serving as a correspondent to cover the Russo-Japanese War in Korea. It argues that from this material, London wrote such literary works as the short story “A Nose for the King” (1906), the historical essay “The Yellow Peril” (1904) and “If Japan Awakens,” and some portion of his memorable fantasy novel, The Star Rover (1915). This chapter claims further that in these works London revealed not only his racist prejudices toward Korea and its people but also that information on Korea is sometimes inaccurate and unreliable.

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Kim, WD. (2019). Jack London and Korea. In: Global Perspectives on Korean Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8727-2_3

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