Park Sangwoo
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Park Sangwoo (Korean: 박상우; born July 2, 1958) is a South Korean writer. He made his literary debut in 1988 when his novella Seureojiji anneun bit (스러지지 않는 빛 A Light That Doesn't Fade Out) won the Munye Joongang Literary Award for Best First Novel. His works include the short story collection Shagarui maeure naerineun nun (샤갈의 마을에 내리는 눈 The Snow Falling on Chagall's Village) and the novels Hotel Kaeliponia (호텔 캘리포니아 Hotel California), Cheongchunui dongjjok (청춘의 동쪽 East of Youth), and Kkamaquitte geurimja (까마귀떼 그림자 Shadows Cast by a Murder of Crows). In 1999 he received the 23rd Yi Sang Literary Award for his short story "Nae maeumui oktapbang" (내 마음의 옥탑방 The Attic of My Heart).[1]
Park Sangwoo was born in Gwangju, South Korea in 1958 and grew up in the city of Pocheon. His family moved to Myeongju County in 1966 when his father, a professional soldier, retired from service. He graduated Chuncheon High School in 1974 and received a degree in creative writing at Chung-Ang University in 1981. He taught at Girin Middle School in Inje County and Hwangji Middle School in the city of Taebaek. He became a full-time writer following his literary debut. He wrote mostly poetry as a college student, but after witnessing a friend commit suicide out of despair over the political turmoil of South Korea in 1980, he gave up poetry and wrote fiction.[2]
Writing
Park Sangwoo's early work, including his debut novella Seureojiji anneun bit (스러지지 않는 빛 A Light That Doesn't Fade Out), explored the destruction of the individual by a violent, institutional power. But Park began to question his writing methods and thematic vision in the mid-1990s, under the pressure of being a full-time writer positioned awkwardly between a generation of young writers in their twenties and that of older writers who were active in the 1980s. Park stopped writing realist works after penning the composite novel Hotel Kaeliponia (호텔 캘리포니아 Hotel California), published in 1996.[3]
This change in Park's style coincides with the period of social upheaval in South Korea from the late 1980s to early 1990s, during which most of the country's writers felt a strong sense of disconnect with the transformed society. If Korean literature in the 1980s urged for social change and focused on the division of the Korean peninsula or the unethical use of power or capital, such themes lost their relevance in the 1990s. Accordingly, Park moved away from political themes in the mid-1990s and examined themes like desire, isolation, and disconnect.[4]
This shift is first seen in Satanui maeure naerineun bi (사탄의 마을에 내리는 비 Rain Falling on Satan's Village), Park's short story collection published in 2000. The stories portray the lonely and demonic side of modern people who, driven mad by the monotony of their lives, destroy themselves and others. An apocalyptic mood runs through the work, which calls reality "the village of Satan" or the tedious hell of anonymous and objectified souls.[5]
