[KS] Park Kyong-ni

[Kay Richards]

Thank you so much for forwarding the link to the Korea Times article.  I read the coverage in the JoongAng Ilbo but the photos in the Korea Times are much more informative.
It seems like Korea just lost one of the literary giants pf the 20th century.

Kay Richards
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Brother Anthony 
  To: Korean Studies Discussion List 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 4:20 PM
  Subject: [KS] Park Kyong-ni


  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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