In ‘The Head’, for instance, a woman is confronted by a creature who lives inside her toilet, and who is made up of all the woman’s bodily effluence. The fictional short-stories blend the genres of magical realism, horror, fantasy and folklore, with some of those reading like critiques of social standards upheld by contemporary society (that don’t just pertain to South Korea). Cursed Bunny was originally published in 2017, two years after the phrase ‘Hell Joseon’ was popularised in South Korea, used by a younger generation as a satirical term to describe the nightmarish socioeconomic crisis they’re facing: a lack of stable, well-paid jobs, entrenched social expectations, an increasing wealth gap.Ī series of nightmares is one way to describe Bora Chung’s cursed tales, the English translation of which was nominated for this year’s Booker Prize.
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