The Sutra of Princess Pari: A Study of the Korean Shamanist Epic by Gi-Wook Shin
Published 1999 · 120,000 words · about 10 hours at an average pace · Non-Fiction, Literary Criticism, Cultural History
How hard is The Sutra of Princess Pari: A Study of the Korean Shamanist Epic to read?
The Sutra of Princess Pari: A Study of the Korean Shamanist Epic scores 36 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 65 out of 100
- Social-science and cultural-studies vocabulary combined with Korean historical terminology; assumes familiarity with postcolonial theory.
- Sentence structure: 60 out of 100
- Abstraction: 72 out of 100
- The 'colonial modernity' framework operates at a significant level of theoretical abstraction; applied to concrete historical and cultural material.
- Information density: 76 out of 100
- Dense with historical evidence, sociological analysis, and theoretical argument; requires sustained engagement.
- Narrative indirection: 16 out of 100
- Each essay states its argument and proceeds by evidence; the volume's overall framework is stated in the introduction.
- Symbolic density: 14 out of 100
- Social-scientific rather than literary mode; symbolic dimensions of colonial culture discussed analytically.
- Ironic distance: 22 out of 100
- The 'colonial modernity' concept itself is a form of structural irony — modernity arriving through oppression — that the essays develop explicitly.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- Each essay resolves its argument; the volume's revisionist claim is stated in the introduction.
- Structural complexity: 45 out of 100
- Multi-author edited volume; readers must integrate multiple disciplinary perspectives to build the full picture.
How The Sutra of Princess Pari: A Study of the Korean Shamanist Epic is regarded
The Sutra of Princess Pari: A Study of the Korean Shamanist Epic holds a literary regard score of 81 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.