Authors
Kim Yeonkyung Novelist South Korea
Yeonkyung(b. 1975) studied Russian Literature at Seoul National University, and received her doctorate degree on Dostoevsky in Moscow. Since her debut in 1996 she has published the short story collections The Tale of a Cat (1997), Adolescent (2000), Everything About My Wife (2005) and the long novella Forgiveness: And then how can I forgive myself (2003). Currently she is teaching Russian Literature at her alma mater. She has translated Dostoevsky’s The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov into Korean.
Place in Yeonkyung’s novels alternates among the small village of Geochang, where she spent her childhood, the city of Busan, where she grew up, and Russia, where she studied for a 3-year-period, and Seoul, which is where she spent her college years as well as her present place of residence. The difference and variety of her spatial spectrum inhabit the world of her novels. Her characters are also as different and various. However, the main figures in her stories are the two groups of young ‘intellectuals’, rather schizophrenic, often college students or good-for-nothings, and the ‘proletariat’, too busy living the everyday life to be reflecting on it. In terms of poetics, she has ever since her debut continued with the mixture of diverse fantastic devices within the realist world, through which she delves into the terror of absurd and tragic human fate, as well as the enigmatic aspect of human existence itself. These attempts come from her view of the world and of aesthetics, formed through the influence of writers such as Kafka, Camus, Dostoevsky, and the outstanding Korean modern writer Yisang.
Participation Program
Round Table 3 Newness in my literature
Round Table 2 Newness in my literature
Round Table 1 Newness in my literature