The Human Arachnid

“The Human Arachnid” was first published in 1928 in Joseon Jigwang (The Light of Joseon), a journal affiliated with the proletarian literature movement of the late 1920s and early 1930s. This story deals with the chance meeting of two friends, Gyeong-su and Chang-o, who had labored together in a place that was presumably Japan, before being separated in the chaos and violence following an earthquake that was presumably the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. With the story’s focus on the labor conditions faced by Koreans under the Japanese Empire, it is unsurprising that many of the details linking the story to contemporary events have been redacted by the censors. The overall arc of the story, beginning with an account of the despair of the working classes and ending with a hopeful message of the benefits if workers come together, reflects a theme common in proletarian literature.