[KS] New Literary Voice & Query

[Frank M. Tedesco]

K-S chinggu tul!!!

Please let me know if any problems persist with my postings. I have been
using the mailer thru Netscape 3, quoting the text and deleting
attachments. How goes?

FMT



>      07-11-98 : Defining New Literary Voice, Shin Heralds
>      Individualism
> 
>      By Kim Ji-soo Staff reporter
> 
>      The characters in her novels are ordinary people such as the
>      neighborhood hairdresser, ticket-booth girl, and park employee.
> 
>      Through these everyday figures, novelist Shin Kyong-sook, 35,
>      revives the concept of individualism in Korea's collective
>      society.
> 
>      ``Like most of my generation who spent their 20s in the 1980s, I
>      did not know what it was to be an individual. A collective
>      atmosphere pervaded the times like damp air,'' Shin said in a
>      recent interview with The Korea Herald.
> 
>      Shin is referring to the 80s when Korea was under the
>      authoritarian rule of two governments led by former military
>      strongmen.
> 
>      The government then was pitted against the silent majority and
>      the not-so-silent majority that she identifies as the student
>      movement.
> 
>      Shin, who passively joined in the Molotov-cocktail throwing
>      students of her time, chose to write for the silent majority.
> 
>      ``Everyone must have been part of the movement. There were the
>      frontliners, who spoke out loudly and there were those in the
>      back, who did not say much. And I believed that those who did not
>      speak out feels guilty to this day for not having said
>      anything,'' she said.
> 
>      For most of her formative years, Shin lived in the center of the
>      ``movement.'' While in high school in the late 70s, she worked
>      during the day at a factory in the industrial district of Kuro,
>      Seoul, and also worked at nights to support her brothers.
> 
>      During college, she lived right in the midst of all the action.
>      Her school, the Seoul Institute of the Arts, is located on the
>      edge of Myong-dong _ a hot spot for student demonstrations in the
>      80s.
> 
>      Her narrative novels take a different approach to storytelling
>      and they are based on personal experience unlike other popular
>      Korean novels, which mainly deal with epic or love stories.
> 
>      Some of her stories spring from her personality, which the author
>      described as being averse to anything ``organizational and
>      organic.''
> 
>      ``People tell me that they find my novels hard to understand. It
>      probably has to do with the similes and symbolism. I feel that a
>      good novel should always find a whole new interpretation through
>      different readers,'' said Shin.
> 
>      She mostly writes about sadness and death using oxymorons.
>      ``Since I write about death and sadness often, I get a lot of
>      `Dear Ann Lander's' type of letters. Sometimes, when I feel the
>      writer of the letter is really in hot water, I reply back,'' Shin
>      said.
> 
>      And most of her readers are in their early 20s and 30s. In her
>      fan letters, the readers regard her as the ``older sister next
>      door.''
> 
>      Shin has been given a lot of literary accolades. Since her debut
>      made through Munye Chungang in 1985, she has received five major
>      literary awards _ the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award in 1993, Young
>      Artist of the Year Award in 1994, the Hyundae Literary Award in
>      1995, and the Manhae Literature Award in 1996. Last year, she won
>      the prestigious Tongin Literature Award for her short novel
>      titled, ``When Will He Come?''
> 
>      In this award-winning novel about a hairdresser whose sister
>      commits suicide, the author captures the sadness of those left
>      behind when a loved one dies.
> 
>      She demonstrates her talent through succinct prose such as this
>      passage in where the protagonist misses her dead sister.
> 
>      ``The road suddenly narrows. Several slate-roofed houses have
>      their backs turned to the road. A shaggy dog barks as we pass by
>      one of the homes. Bark, dog, we are going to go by anyway. But
>      sis, pass by here someday, and I'll be the dog barking for you.''
> 
>      Shin, who is currently working on a new novel to be published
>      later this year, may well be one of three popular writers _ in
>      both prose and poetry _ who are widely recognized for their high
>      book sales.
> 
>      The others are poet Choi Young-mee and novelist Kong Ji-young.
>      The three female writers, all in their mid-thirties, have been
>      criticized by the literary circle here for individualistic
>      tendencies and strong advocation of women's rights.
> 
>      ``I don't understand why they criticize individualism. It is
>      something everyone can relate with,'' she said.
> 
>      She pointed out that the older group of Korean literati might
>      feel threatened by the new generation of writers.
> 
>      ``Our literature, especially in the 90s, has turned realistic.
>      Realism has made its way into literature. Women writers with
>      their sensitivity and intuition are better able to pick up every
>      day things and incorporate it into their writing,'' Shin said.
> 
>      She stressed that it is meaningless and hollow to depend on some
>      sort of trend to give life to literature.
> 
>      ``We should not have to rely on historical moments ... Individual
>      happiness is the most important thing, I think, because it
>      directly relates to productivity _ a happier person works
>      better,'' Shin said.
> 
>      Opposed to the turbulent unrest, collectivism and fatalism of the
>      '80s, Shin embodies the realism and individualism of the 90s.
> 
>      [Image]
> 
>            Copyright 1998 Korea Herald. All right reserved.
>                      Designed by ISM Corporation
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/kh0711/m0711c01.html

-- 


Frank Tedesco, Ph.D.
Occasional lecturer, University of Maryland
Assistant Professor
Sejong University
98 Kunjadong, Kwangjin-gu
Seoul 143-747 KOREA
Tel/fax: 82-2-997-3954
E-mail: tedesco at uriel.net

"Life is a terminal disease, and it's sexually transmitted."
John Cleese, the Buddhist.


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