Kang Sŏk-kyŏng , who was born on 10 January 1951, is a South Korean author with two works translated into English."강석경 " biographical PDF available at: http://www.klti.or.kr/ku_01_02_011.do?method=author_detail&AI_NUM=587&admin_top_lid=ka_01&admin_m_p_seq=45&admin_s_seq=0&user_system=kuser

Life

Kang was born in

Daegu Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is ...

, and attended

Ewha Womans University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's university in Seoul founded in 1886 by Mary F. Scranton under Emperor Gojong. It was the first university founded in South Korea. Currently, Ewha is one of the world's largest female educational ins ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. Originally a student of fine arts, she stumbled into a literary career quite accidentally when she entered a creative writing contest to raise tuition for graduate studies in sculpture and art criticism. Her debut works were "Roots" (''Geun'') and "Open Game" (''Opeun Gaeim'') for which she received the Literary Ideology Award in 1974. Her talent was unmistakable from the beginning, and for more than thirty years since her debut, she has remained a prolific and respected writer.

Work

Kang has focused on the "search for the self" in her fiction. Having faced a difficult choice between fine art and writing, Kang recognizes that life is filled with diverging roads and attendant dilemmas, which allow us a glimpse into our true selves. Kang's fiction can be divided into two categories. In the first, she examines the search for the true self from the perspective of an artist, whose quests are unadulterated by any social or political agenda. In the second category, Gang focuses on ordinary individuals and shows the ways in which social structure and conventions can damage human dignity. Many of her works concerns the inhumanity she finds within the Korean society. Literature, for Kang, is a way to heal wounded souls, by means of which one can take a step closer to the true essence of human life. Her trip to India in 1992 allowed her a powerful experience of the "infinite universe", as a result of which she realized that all obsessions are primitive in nature. "Violence is the source of all oppressions," she has once stated, "and function of literature is to strip away the falsities and superfluous concerns beclouding the true essence of human life, thereby contributing to the expansion of human freedom ..." .

Awards

*2013 Dongni Literature Prize *2001 21st Century Literature Prize *1986 Today's Writer Award *1986 Nokwon Literature Prize *1974 Literary Ideology Newcomer's Award

Works in translation

*The Valley Nearby *Words of Farewell

Works in Korean (partial)

* "Open Game" (''Opeun gaeim'' 1974) * "Roots" (''Geun'' 1974) * "A Room in the Forest" (''Supsok ui bang'', 1985) * "The Valley Nearby" (''Gakkaun goljjagi'', 1989) * "Journey to India" (''Indo gihaeng'', 1990) * "Toto Who Went to India" (''Indoro gan ttotto'', 1994) * "All the Stars In the World Rises in Lhasa" (''Sesang ui byeoleun da lasa e tteunda'', 1996) * "The Road to the Tomb" (''Neung euro ganeun gil'', 2000)

References