Park Wansuh

Park Wan-suh (October 20, 1931January 22, 2011) was a South Korean writer.

Life

Park Wan-suh (also Park Wan-seo, Park Wan-so, Park Wansuh, Park Kee-pah, Pak Wan-so, Pak Wanso) was born in 1931 in Gaepung-gun in what is now Hwanghaebuk-do in North Korea.Writer, Park Wansuh. List: Books from Korea. KLTI
Park entered Seoul National University, but dropped out almost immediately after attending classes due to the outbreak of the Korean War and the death of her brother. During the war, Park was separated from her mother and elder brother by the North Korea army, which moved them to North Korea. She lived in the village of Achui, in Guri, outside Seoul until her death. Park died on the morning of January 22, 2011, suffering from cancer. The novelist Jung Yi-hyun wrote in his memorial letter, "You will know how much hope it is for the many female writers that the fact that there is a Park Wan-suh in Korean paragraphs."

Work

Park published her first work, ''The Naked Tree'', in 1970, when she was 40. Her œuvre quickly grew however and as of 2007 she had written fifteen novels, and 10 short story collections. Her work is "revered" in Korea and she has won many Korean literary awards including, in 1981 the Yi Sang Literary Prize, in 1990 the Korean Literature award, and in 1994 the Dong-in Literary Award. Park's work centers on families and biting critiques of the middle class. Perhaps the most vivid example of this is in her work ''The Dreaming Incubator'' in which a woman is forced to undergo a series of abortions until she can deliver a male child. Her best known works in Korea include ''Year of Famine in the City'' (도시의 흉년凶年), ''Swaying Afternoons'', ''Warm Was the Winter That Year'', and ''Are you Still Dreaming?''.

In terms of general thematic concern, Park's fiction can be divided into three groups. The first deals with the tragic events of Korean War and its aftermath. Many of these stories reflect Park's own experiences. Born October 20, 1931 in Gaepung, Gyeonggi-do (before the division of the country; now Hwanghaebuk-do), Park entered the Korean Literature Department of the prestigious Seoul National University, but the eruption of the Korean War and the death of her older brother cut her studies short. The turbulence of the age she lived through is preserved in such works as ''The Naked Tree'', ''Warm Was the Winter That Year'' (Geuhae gyeoureun ttatteuthaennae, 1983), ''Mother’s Stake I'' (Eommaui malttuk I, 1980), and ''Mother’s Garden'' (Eommaui tteul, 1981), depictions of families torn apart by the war and the heavy price the war continues to exact from its survivors. The archetypal figure in these works is that of the suffering mother who must make her way through life after losing both her husband and her son during the war. The mother in ''The Naked Tree'', for example, is presented as an empty shell, whose inability to cope with her double loss robs her of the will to live. The place left vacant by the mother within the family must be taken up by her daughter instead; the burden for supporting the family rests squarely on her young shoulders. A certain density that characterizes ''The Naked Tree''’s prose intensifies the sense of suffocation that pervades the lives of post-war Koreans. While the daughter's active attempts to overcome the ordeal of her life provides a positive contrast to her mother's attitude of resignation, the work nonetheless reveals the severity of the damages, both psychical and material, sustained by the survivors of the war, and the difficulty of achieving genuine healing."Park Wan Suh" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at:

Park's works also target the hypocrisy and materialism of middle-class Koreans. The apartments of identical size, furnishings, and decorations that inscribe just as identical lives intent on gaining material gratification in ''Identical Apartments'' (Dalmeun bangdeul, 1974), a marriage of convenience that brings about atrocious results in ''A Reeling Afternoon'' (Huicheonggeorineun ohu, 1977), and schools where they prune, rather than educate, children in ''Children of Paradise'' (Naktoui aideul, 1978) all offer sharp denunciations of a bourgeois society. In these works, acts of individual avarice and snobbery are linked to larger social concerns such as the breakdown of age-old values and dissolution of the family. In turn, these phenomena are found to be symptomatic of the rapid industrialization of society in Korea after 1960s.

In 1980s, Park turned increasingly toward problems afflicting women in patriarchal society while continuing to engage with the lives of middle-class Koreans. Such works as ''The Beginning of Days Lived'' (Sarainneun nareui sijak, 1980), ''The Woman Standing'' (Seo inneun yeoja, 1985) and ''The Dreaming Incubator'' (Kkum kkuneun inkyubaeiteo, 1993) belong to this group. Through the eyes of a woman who has been forced to abort a daughter in order to produce a son, ''The Dreaming Incubator'', in particular, critiques the male-centered organization of Korean society which reduces women to incubators for the male progeny. Park has also sketched the life of a woman merchant at the turn of the century in the historical novel ''Remembrance'' (Mimang 미망 未忘, 1985–90).

Park's translated novels include ''Who Ate up All the Shinga'' which sold some 1.5 million copies in Korean and was well-reviewed in English translation. Park is also published in ''The Red Room: Stories of Trauma in Contemporary Korea''.

Works in translation

My Very Last Possession: And Other Stories
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The Red Room: Stories of Trauma in Contemporary Korea

Sketch of the Fading Sun
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Three Days in That Autumn
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Weathered Blossom (Modern Korean Short Stories)
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Who Ate Up All the Shinga?: An Autobiographical Novel
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Lonesome You (너무도 쓸쓸한 당신)
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Works in Korean (partial)

* 1970 ''The Naked Tree'' (나목)
* 1977 ''A Tottering Afternoon'' (휘청거리는 오후)
* 1979 ''Shade of Desire'' (욕망의 응달)
* 1982 ''Mother’s Garden'' (엄마의 말뚝)
* 1983 ''Warm Was the Winter That Year'' (그해 겨울은 따뜻했네)
* 1985 ''Three Days in That Autumn'' (그 가을의 사흘동안)
* 1989 ''Year of Famine in the City'' (도시의 흉년)
* 1990 ''Unforgettable'' (미망)
* 1992 ''Who Ate Up All the Shinga?'' (그 많던 싱아는 누가 다 먹었을까?)
*1993 ''The Dreaming Incubator'' (꿈꾸는 인큐베이터)
* 1998 ''Lonesome You'' (너무도 쓸쓸한 당신)
* 2000 ''A Very Old Joke'' (아주 오래된 농담)
* 2004 ''The Man's House'' (그 남자네 집)
* 2008 ''Friendly Ms. Bok-hee'' (친절한 복희씨)
* 2009 ''Three Wishes'' (세 가지 소원)
* 2016 ''Identical Apartments'' (닮은 방들)
* 2018 ''Park Wan-suh's words'' (박완서의 말)

Awards

* Korean National Literature Award (한국문학작가상 1980)
* Yi Sang Literary Award (1981)
* Republic of Korea Literature Prize (大韓民國文學賞 대한민국문학상 1990)
* Hyundae Munhak Award (1993)
* Dong-in Literary Award (1994)
* Daesan Literary Awards (1997)
* Ho-am Prize in the Arts (2006)
* Order of Cultural Merit (2011)Jang, Sung-eun
"Beloved Korean Novelist Dies At 80,"
''Wall Street Journal'' (US). January 26, 2011.

References

External links

A review of "Who Ate Up All the Shinga" at KTLIT



A review of "Who Ate Up All the Shinga" At Acta Koreana



Bibliography of Translated Works

{{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Wan-Suh
1931 births
2011 deaths
South Korean novelists
South Korean women novelists
South Korean essayists
Seoul National University alumni
People from North Hwanghae
Yi Sang Literary Award
Recipients of the Order of Cultural Merit (Korea)
Recipients of the Ho-Am Prize in the Arts