Lee O-young (15 January 1934 – 26 February 2022) was a South Korean critic and novelist."이어령" biographical PDF
at LTI Korea Library Although the romanized spelling of the

hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

name "이어령" might be Yi O-ryŏng or Lee Eo-ryeong, Lee O-young is the author's preferred romanization according to the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.

Life and career

Lee O-young was born on 15 January 1934, (other sources say 29 December 1933) in

Asan Asan () is a city in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. It borders the Seoul Capital Area to the north. Asan has a population of approximately 300,000. Asan is known for its many hot springs and is a city of spas. Asan has grown into th ...

Chungcheongnam-do South Chungcheong Province ( ko, 충청남도, ''Chungcheongnam-do''), also known as Chungnam, is a province of South Korea. South Chungcheong has a population of 2,059,871 (2014) and has a geographic area of 8,204 km2 (3,168 sq mi) located in ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. Lee went to Buyeo High School and Seoul National University from which he received undergraduate (1956) and graduate (1959) degrees in Korean literature. Lee has taught at

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 inst ...

, where he was a professor emeritus, and

Dankook University Dankook University (commonly referred to as Dankook), abbreviated as DU or DKU, is a prestigious private research university in Yongin and Cheonan, South Korea. The university was established in 1947. It was the first university established after ...

. Lee has been the chief editor of ''Munhak sasang'' (''Literary Thought'') and the Korean Minister of Culture. He died from cancer on 26 February 2022, at the age of 88.

Work

Lee was one of the most prominent figures to emerge from the "post-war generation" of Korean critics. Making his mark with his first piece of literary criticism, "''Lee Sang non''" ("On Lee Sang", 1955), he caused a stir in literary circles with his next essay, "''Usang eui pagoe''" ("Destruction of an Idol"), published in Hankook Ilbo in 1956. At a time when the war experience seemed to have devastated the literary imagination as well, Lee argued for the expansion and enrichment of Korean literature in articles that featured considerable rhetorical sophistication and verve.

Literary works

Translated works

* ''The General's Beard'' (장군의 수염 )

Works in Korean (partial)

Critical collections * ''Jeohang eui munhak'' (Literature of Resistance, 1959) * ''Jeonhu munhag eui saemulgyeol'' (The New Wave of Postwar Literature) * ''Tonggeum sidae eui munhak'' (Literature in the Age of Curfew) Fiction * ''Janggun eui suyeom'' (The General's Beard) * ''Amsalja'' (The Assassin) * ''Jeonjaeng Dekameron'' (Wartime Decameron) * ''Hwangag eui dari'' (Phantom Legs) Essays * ''Heuk soge jeo baram soge'' (In This Earth & In That Wind: This Is Korea, 1963) * Sin han kuk in (New Korean, 1986) * Chook so ji hyange ilbonin (Japanese people who are scaled down, 2008) * Digilog (digilog, 2006) * Jisunge Osolgil (The path of the intellect, 2004) * Jisung esu youngsung euro (From intellect to spirituality, 2017)

Received awards

Lee has won a variety of Korean awards. * 1979: Korean Award for Culture and Art (대한민국 문화예술상) * 1992: Award for Design Culture of Japan (일본 디자인문화상) * 1996: 24th Award of Japan for International Exchange (제24회 일본 국제교류기금 대상) * 2001: Cultural Award of Seoul (서울시문화상, 문학부문) * 2003: 48th Award of the Korean Council for Art (제48회 대한민국 예술원상, 문학부문) * 2007: 2nd Mask of Respect Award (제2회 마크 오브 리스펙트상) * 2009: 2nd Grand Award for Korean People, category for literature (제2회 한민족문화예술대상 문학부문상) * 2009: International Masaoka Shiki Award (마사오카 시키 국제 하이쿠상) * 2011: 20th Sochung Saseon Culture Award, special award (제20회 소충 사선문화상 특별상) * 2011: 24th Christian Culture Award, special award in literature (제24회 기독교문화대상 시상식 문학 특상)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, O-young 1934 births 2022 deaths 20th-century South Korean writers 21st-century South Korean writers South Korean novelists South Korean literary critics Culture ministers of South Korea Seoul National University alumni Dankook University faculty Ewha Womans University faculty South Korean Presbyterians People from Asan Dankook University alumni