April 25, 2024
Evergreen

Why Soviet translators in the 1960s hated North Korean literature

Russian experts found little to like in the poor quality of the DPRK's fiction

For decades, the policymakers of the Soviet Union strove to protect the Soviet populace from the supposedly demoralizing influence of the U.S.-centered mass culture of the capitalist world. As a counterbalance to Hollywood movies and Western rock music, an alternative cultural space was created.

Along with the multi-ethnic culture of the Soviet Union, it consisted of translated literary texts, films and popular music from ideologically friendly or neutral countries.

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