Lee Hyoseok (1907-1942) was a Korean writer.
1. Life
Lee Hyoseok was born in the Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province. His pen name was Gasan. Lee Hyoseok enrolled in Gyeongseong Imperial University in 1925 and his poem “Bom” (봄 Spring) was published in the Maeil Sinbo the same year. His first short story, "Dosiwa yuryeong" (도시와 유령 The City and the Specter), was published in Joseon Jigwang in 1928.
At the beginning of his writing career, Lee wrote stories on the theme of social commitment, but with the publication of "Don" (돈 Pig) in 1933 he began writing stories with a more lyrical color, drawing his subject matter from the countryside, an example of which is "Memilkkot pil muryeop" (메밀꽃 필 무렵 When the Buckwheat Blooms). In the third and last phase of his career he explored the world of sensual experiences, showing his indebtedness to D. H. Lawrence, exemplified in "Bunnyeo"(분녀 Bunnyeo) and Hwabun (화분 Pollen).
In need of money, Lee worked briefly for the Japanese Government-General's censorship department in 1931 but quit upon general uproar among his writer friends. Lee then moved to his wife's hometown of Gyeongseong, North Hamgyeong Province, where he worked as an English teacher. In 1934 he began teaching at Soongsil University in Pyeongyang. He died of meningitis in 1942 at the age of 35.
2. Writing
Lee Hyoseok is counted among Korea’s best short story writers along with Hyun Jin-geon, Yi Taejun, and Pak Taewon. Along with his contemporary Yu Jinoh, Lee was classified as a “fellow traveler” writer. Such an epithet was used to describe writers who, while not officially joining KAPF(Korean Artists' Proletarian Federation), sympathized with its ideology and aims. Lee's work was self-consciously political and frequently focused on the lives of unfortunate women forced into prostitution, often combining his political message with explorations of sexuality. A number of his early stories such as "Dosiwa yuryeong," "Noryeonggeunhae" (노령근해 Siberian Coast), "Sangnyuk" (상륙 Landing), "Bukgeuksasin" (북극사신 Correspondence from the North Country) are examples of such works.
However, with the decline of proletariat literature in the early 1930s, Lee became a member of the modernist coterie Group of Nine, after which he discarded his socialist leanings in favor of a powerful eroticism based on a lyrical style of storytelling. Characteristic of this style are the works "Don," "Bunnyeo," "San" (산 Mountains), and "Deul" (들 Fields). In "Don," Lee writes of a man who raises a sow, intent on building a pig farm, but superimposes human sexuality over the rutting of the pigs. As Lee's career progressed, he focused even more on the themes of human desire and sexuality, using a style of writing often more redolent of verse than prose. Such works include the short stories "Gaesalgu" (개살구 Wild Apricots) and "Jangmi byeongdeulda" (장미 병들다 The Sick Rose) and the novel Hwabun.
His most widely read story, “When the Buckwheat Blooms,” is the tale of an itinerant peddler, going from market to market in the vicinity of Bongpyeong, Lee’s birthplace. The story unfolds against the lyrically depicted moonlight and blooming buckwheat flowers. The best part of this story is the remarkable description of the buckwheat flowers along the mountain roads under the moonlight, which is considered one of the most beautiful scenes in the history of Korean literature. It portrays their assimilation with nature symbolized by the moon and their donkeys, in a lyrical and magical language. Many elements of this story, such as the poetic style, open ending, and a subtle allusion to the characters' relationship, have had a great influence on the lyrical works of fiction in Korea since its publication.
