Kang Shin-Jae (1924 – 2001) was a Korean novelist, essayist and playwright.
1. Life
Kang Shin-Jae was born in Seoul. In her early childhood, her father's job took the family to Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province. The cold weather and harsh landscape of the region made a deep impression on Kang, who later used such scenery as the background in her writings. After her father's unexpected death, the family returned to Seoul. Kang's literary talent was discovered by her primary school teachers, who encouraged her creative writing, and in her early teens she won first prize in national student literary competitions. By the time she entered Ewha Woman's University, however, Korea had become a base for the Japanese war effort. Kang was forced to elect home economics over English, her preferred major, because to study English was viewed as an act of collaboration. Frustrated and bored, she dropped out in 1944.
Kang started her career as a writer in 1949 on the recommendation of Kim Dong-ni, publishing the short stories "Eolgul" (얼굴 Face) and "Jeongsuni" (정순이 Jeongsun) in Munye. Her major works include the novels Imjingangui mindeulle (임진강의 민들레 The Dandelion on the Imjin River), Pado (파도 Waves), Oneulgwa naeil (오늘과 내일 Today and Tomorrow), the short story collections Jeolmeun neutinamu (젊은 느티나무 The Young Zelkova Tree), Yeojeong (여정 Journey), and the essay collection Moraeseong (모래성 The Sandcastle). Kang served as president of the Korean Association of Women Writers and was a member of the Korean Academy of Arts. She received the Korean Writers' Association Award (1959), the Women Writers' Award (1967), the Korean Academy of Arts Award (1988), and the Samil Culture Award (1997).
2. Writing
Kang's primary interest lay in portraying pure love, understanding, and human warmth. The majority of her protagonists—usually sensitive and refined—live in hostile or conflict-ridden circumstances that pose obstacles to their aspirations and pursuit of happiness. Eventually, however, the main characters transform their struggle into one of rare beauty and elegance, even if their lives end in tragedy. Dang also deploys shady and detestable secondary characters to form a contrast to these protagonists, and bring out their admirable inner qualities. In presenting her characters, the author displays a refinement in craftsmanship, by maintaining distance and objectivity, and succeeds in creating dramatis personae that remain in control of their emotions and actions.
Kang's signature work is unquestionably "The Young Zelkova Tree"—a provocative story about a love between a stepbrother (college student) and a stepsister (high school student) living under the same roof. The impact of the story led to its being made into a film in 1968. "Pyo seonsaeng sunangi" (표 선생 수난기 The Tribulations of Mr. Pyo), about a mother who has an affair with her son's friend, is another illicit love story considered extreme at the time of publication.
Among Kang's representative works, her novel The Dandelion on the Imjin River is a tragic love story of a woman and her family's hardships set against the backdrop of the Korean War. Another of Kang's novels, Waves, is an episodic narrative concerning the complicated life stories of a number of people living in a northern port, with a young, rough-hewn but curious and extroverted girl as its unifying focus. The novel reflects a strong regional flavor derived from Kang's childhood experience in Chongjin. In 1974, Kang became the first Korean woman writer to have her works published in a multivolume collection. From the late 1970s, Kang began to turn to the historical genre and produced such novels as Sadosejabin (사도세자빈 Crown Princess Sado) and Myeongseonghwanghu (명성황후 Empress Myeongsong).
