Kinship Novels of Early Modern Korea: Between Genealogical Time and the Domestic Everyday by Ksenia Chizhova (review)

Kinship Novels of Early Modern Korea is the first English-language study of Korean lineage novels, lengthy fictional narratives written in vernacular Korean, that flourished from the late seventeenth century through the early twentieth century. The lineage novel is not easily accessible for general readers in Korea today, primarily because of the sheer number of volumes, sometimes exceeding one hundred per work. Ksenia Chizhova, however, succeeds in demonstrating the historical and cultural significance of the lineage novel in the broad context of the kinship culture of early modern Korea. She suggests Korean patrilineal kinship was not only a social structure but also a process that was constantly in the making through aesthetic and textual reiterations. The lineage novel for its part represents textual practices that give expressions to the affective dimension of kinship. Chizhova strategically explores six representative examples of the lineage novel: The Pledge at the Banquet of Moon-Gazing Pavilion (Wanwŏl hoemaeng yŏn 玩月會 盟宴), The Remarkable Reunion of Jade Mandarin Ducks (Ogwŏn chaehap kiyŏn 玉鴛再合奇緣) and its sequel, and The Record of Two Heroes: The Brothers Hyŏn (Hyŏn ssi yangung ssangnin ki 玄氏兩雄雙麟記) and its two sequels. She argues that lineage novels typically show a long and convoluted trajectory in which unruly feelings dissonant with the prescriptive kinship are brought into alignment with kinship norms, ultimately confirming the legitimacy and perpetuity of lineage. The book consists of three parts. In part 1, Chizhova historicizes the lineage novel by placing it within the web of kinship texts of various kinds and within the reading and writing culture of elite women. In the first chapter, Chizhova