Yi Sang (September 23, 1910 – April 17, 1937) was an author of modern Korean literature.
1. Life
Yi Sang was born as Kim Hae-gyeong on September 23, 1910, in Seoul. In 1929 he graduated from Gyeongseong Engineering High School with training as an architect and for a time was employed as a draftsman in the public works department of the Governor-General of Korea. In December 1929 he won first and third prizes in a design contest for the cover of Korea and Architecture (조선과 건축), and the Korean Architecture Society (조선건축회) journal, respectively. Most of his works were produced during the 1930s.
In 1934 he joined the Circle of Nine (구인회), whose core members included Kim Girim, Yi Tae Jun, and Chong Chi-Yong. In 1936 Lee began to edit the Circle of Nine journal, Poetry and Fiction (시와 소설), published by Changmunsa under the aegis of Koo Bonung.
Several of his works were published in this journal, including his poems "Jibi" (지비 Paper Gravestone), "Gaoe gajeon" (가외가전 Street Exterior, Street Passage), "Widok" (위독 Critical Condition) and the stories "Jijuhoesi" (지주회시 Meeting of a Spider and a Pig), "Nalgae" (날개 Wings), "Bongbyeolgi"(봉별기 Meetings and Farewells), and "Donghae" (동해 Child's Bone). His short story "Jongsaenggi" (종생기 Dying Words) and his personal memoir "Gwontae" (권태 Monotony) were published posthumously in Tokyo.
In November 1936 he went to Japan, where he was arrested by the Japanese police the following year. He was released on bail and admitted to Tokyo University Hospital, where he died on April 17, 1937.
2. Writing
Yi was perhaps the most famous avant-garde writer of the colonial era. In his work he experimented with language, interiority, separation from inside one's self as well as the outer world. His poems, in particular, were influenced by Western literary concepts including Dadaism and Surrealism. Yi's background in architecture influenced his work, which often included the languages of mathematics and architecture including, lines, dots, number systems, equations and diagrams.
His literary legacy is punctuated by his modernist tendencies evinced throughout his oeuvre. His poems reveal the desolate internal landscape of modern humanity and, as in "Ogamdo" (오감도 Crow's-Eye View), utilize an anti-realist technique to condense the themes of anxiety and fear. His stories disjoint the form of traditional fiction to show the conditions of the lives of modern people. His short story “Wings,” for example, utilizes a stream-of-consciousness technique to express these conditions in terms of the alienation of modern people, who are fragmented commodities unable to relate to quotidian reality.
Yi Sang never received much recognition for his writing during his lifetime, but his works began to be reprinted in the 1950s. In the 1970s his reputation soared, and in 1977 the Yi Sang Literary Award was established. His most famous short story is probably "Wings," and his poem "Crow's-Eye View" is also well-known.
