koreanlit1-6, Exercise 1: Yi Gwangsu

Model answer:

Mujeong (The Heartless, 1917) is "often described as the first modern Korean novel" and "reflected the complexities of Korea's modernization efforts".
1919: lead author of the February 8 Declaration of Independence, which the article says helped catalyse the March First protests.
After 1937: following an imprisonment he "recanted his anti-Japanese stance and leaned more towards collaboration"; in 1939 he became the first head of a pro-Japanese writers' association. The historian Michael Shin is cited on nationalists' growing scepticism of him.

Hedged or tagged: the reasons for his 1921 arrest are "reportedly unknown"; the Tolstoy influence is "reportedly" described; the claim that he was a pioneer of queer literature is tagged "citation needed"; his cause of death (Manpo, 25 October 1950) is "most likely" tuberculosis.

Source: Wikipedia, Yi Kwangsu.