Lee SungBoo (His preferred Romanization according to LTI Korea from the Hangul: 이성부) was a South Korean poet and novelist.Lee SungBoo" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at: http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do#

Life

Lee SungBoo was born January 22, 1942, in

Kwangju Gwangju () is South Korea's sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister. The city was also the capital of South Jeolla Province until the provincial office ...

Jeollanam-do South Jeolla Province (; ''Jeollanam-do''; ), also known as Jeonnam, is a province of South Korea. South Jeolla has a population of 1,902,324 (2014) and has a geographic area of located in the Honam region at the southwestern tip of the Korean ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. While he was attending Gwangju High School in 1959, his works were recognized in a literary contest sponsored by the Jeonnam Ilbo. He later became a member of Taegwang and Sunmunhak and studied under Kim Hyeonseung,"Lee SungBoo" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at: http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do# Lee graduated from

Kyunghee University Kyung Hee University (abbreviated to KHU) (Hangul: 경희대학교; Hanja: 慶熙大學校) is a private research university in South Korea with campuses in Seoul and Suwon. Founded in 1949, it is widely regarded as one of the best universities i ...

with a degree in

Korean literature Korean literature is the body of literature produced by Koreans, mostly in the Korean language and sometimes in Classical Chinese. For much of Korea's 1,500 years of literary history, it was written in Hanja. It is commonly divided into classica ...

, and worked for the

Hankook Ilbo ''Hankook Ilbo'' () is a Korean-language daily newspaper in Seoul, South Korea. As of 2017, it had a daily circulation of about 213,200. It was previously published by the Hankook Ilbo Media Group, however following an embezzlement scandal in ...

Work

LTI Korea summarizes Lee's work: :The majority of Lee Seongbu’s works, especially those pieces written in the 1960s and 1970s, were born out of the poet’s passionate and furious desire to let the voice of the repressed be heard. Thus, the anger reflected in his poems originated from the external world, or contemporary society, rather than from his inner psyche or from nature. These works aimed to express the lives of the people ignored and tortured throughout history. The images of "darkness" and "night" that frequently appear in his poems, for example, convey acceptance of defeat and repression yet also the willingness to overcome such a reality and its limitations. As seen in "All Night Long", however, the image of "night" is not always negatively portrayed. When love and understanding for the repressed expands, the image of "night" transforms into a time and place for celebration.Source-attribution, "Lee SungBoo" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at: http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do# : :The poet also believed that genuine anger towards the reality of repression derived from the experience and perseverance of suffering and adversity inherent in life. Thus through such perseverance, compassion and love for those who have repressed and ignored throughout history is bound to grow. The poet also believed that bearing what life has to offer is the true way to surmount sadness and defeat. Accordingly, his poerms are noted for his apt diction and style, which tell of the reality of the external world, in order to bring to light the happenings of the inner world.

Works in Korean (Partial)

Novels * Night of Dissipation (Somoui bam)(1961) * Our Meal (Urideurui yangsik) (1974) * Daylight (Baekju) (1977) Poems * Collected Works of Lee Seongbu (Lee Seongbu Sijip) * Our Food (Minumsa, 1974) * Paekche Poems (Changjak Gwa Bipyong-sa, 1977) * The Night Before (Changjak Gwa Bipyong-sa, 1981) * Leaving the Empty Mountain (Pulbit, 1989)

Awards

Contemporary Literature (Hyundae Munhak) Award The company Contemporary Literature (“Hyundae Munhak” in Korean), founded in South Korea in 1954, is one of the leading publishing companies in the literary field and has been publishing the nation's most prestigious monthly literary magazine ' ...

in 1969 * 4th Korean Literature Writers Award in 1977 * Daesan Literature Award for Poetry in 2001 * Kyunghee Literature Award in 2011 * 가천환경문학상 시부문 in 2007 * 공초문학상 in 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Sungboo 1942 births Korean writers 2012 deaths