[KS] Park Kyong-ni

[Brother Anthony]

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I do not think that anyone has recorded the death, last Monday May 5, of the novelist Park Kyong-ni, author of the immense 'Toji' (Land) novel (16 volumes) and many other works. It was always a source of bewilderment to Koreans that translators did not share their enthusiasm for her, when she seemed to so many Korean readers to embody and give voice to the essential Korean woman's experience. They could not see the immense difficulties translators and non-Korean readers faced on account of the constant flow of untranslateable references to traditional Korean culture and Korean history, to say nothing of the immense size of 'Toji'. In German, seven volumes by her were translated, thanks mainly to the devotion of one translator. In general, women writers born a decade or two later than her have fared better in translation (Park Wan-so or O Jong-hui) but she was for ordinary Koreans a remarkable figure whom they venerated deeply.
See for example 
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2008/05/244_23642.html
 for more details. The funeral will be on May 9.
Brother Anthony
Sogang University, Seoul
http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/

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