Fiction Books

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This story, Change Course (Hangno rǔl pakkura) by Yi Kŭmchǒl, speaks about solidarity, peace, and love for the motherland, displaying an intricate relationship between literature and politics.

It was first published in 2004 in the Chosǒn munhak magazine, only to be reprinted 13 years later, around the time North Korea claimed it was capable of launching attacks on US soil.

Late dictator Kim Jong-il referenced science fiction books in his speeches and set guidelines for authors, encouraging them to write about optimistic futures for their country.

As in Change Course, North Koreans in sci-fi are typically portrayed as trying to save somebody, while the Americans are the villains who want "to monopolize and weaponize [technology] to dominate the world," he added.

"When I read Change Course, I find myself constantly thinking: If I were watching this same story as a Hollywood movie and the protagonists were Americans, my reaction would be very different," said researcher Benoît Berthelier, lecturer at the University of Sydney, who published several papers on Korean literature.

"When you experience familiar plot structures and tropes but with the protagonists and antagonists reversed, there's a distancing effect that makes you question why only certain configurations of good and bad roles feel uncontroversial."

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