Korean literature at Göttingen State and University Library
Göttingen State and University Library holds the largest collection of Korean literature in Germany. We collect literature from North- and South Korea as well as from China. We also collect the literature weekly “Lenin Kiči”, today called “Kore Ilbo”, by Koreans from Kazakhstan.
Furthermore, Göttingen State and University Library holds a vast collection of microfilms of older Korean literature, often in manuscripts from Tokyo, Seoul, Leningrad or other places. A catalogue of these microfilms by Dr. Hui Lie is available as „Katalog der älteren koreanischen Erzählliteratur Kososŏl in der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen / zusammengestellt von Hiu Lie , Thunum 2003“.
Lately we focused on literature from North Korea and by Koreans from Manchuria/China. North Korean youth-literature and comics/mangas were acquired to give access to the changes in literature there. Fantasy novels from South Korea show the trends there. Additionally we bought a great collection of Korean schoolbooks from Manchuria because they represent changes in language and society very well.
From Pyongyang, we received the weekly newspaper “Munhak Sinmun” and the paper for youth literature “Adong Munhak” and others.
Overall, the key area of acquisition lays in literature and culture and to a lesser degree in economy, politics and sciences. The separation between politics and culture is very difficult and not always useful for North Korea, Furthermore, history and historic literature necessarily overlap.