Park Wan-suh
Encyclopedia
Park Wan-suh was a South Korea
n writer.
. Park entered Seoul National University
, the most prestigious in Korea, 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’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 'Bad Luck in the City', 'Swaying Afternoons', 'That Year the Winter was Warm', 'Are you Still Dreaming?'.
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 “
Park died on the morning of January 22, 2011, suffering from cancer.
The Red Room: Stories of Trauma in Contemporary Korea
Sketch of the Fading Sun
Three Days in That Autumn
Weathered Blossom (Modern Korean Short Stories)
Who Ate Up All the Shinga?: An Autobiographical Novel
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n writer.
Early years
Park Wan-suh (also Park Wan-seo, Park Wan-so, Park Wansuh, Park Kee-pah and Pak Wan-so, Pak Wanso) was born in 1931 in Gaepung-gun, Gyeonggi-do in what is now North KoreaNorth Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
. Park entered Seoul National University
Seoul National University
Seoul National University , colloquially known in Korean as Seoul-dae , is a national research university in Seoul, Korea, ranked 24th in the world in publications in an analysis of data from the Science Citation Index, 7th in Asia and 42nd in the world by the 2011 QS World University Rankings...
, the most prestigious in Korea, but dropped out almost immediately after attending classes due to the outbreak of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
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.
Work
Park published her first work, The Naked Tree, in 1970, when she was 40. Her oeuvre 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 AwardDong-in Literary Award
The Dong-in Literary Award is a South Korean literary award named after novelist Kim Dong-in, established in order to praise the literary achievement of The Republic of Korea...
. 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 'Bad Luck in the City', 'Swaying Afternoons', 'That Year the Winter was Warm', 'Are you Still Dreaming?'.
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 “
Park died on the morning of January 22, 2011, suffering from cancer.
Partial list of publications
My Very Last Possession: And Other StoriesThe Red Room: Stories of Trauma in Contemporary Korea
Sketch of the Fading Sun
Three Days in That Autumn
Weathered Blossom (Modern Korean Short Stories)
Who Ate Up All the Shinga?: An Autobiographical Novel