Oh Soo-yeon (born 1964) is a modern South Korean writer.
1. Life
Oh Soo-yeon was born in Seoul. She studied Korean literature at Seoul National University. She began her literary career in 1994 when her novel Nanjangi naraui gukgyeongil (난장이 나라의 국경일 National Holiday in the Land of Dwarves) won the New Writer's Award from Hyundae Munhak. In 1997 she published her first short story, "Binjip" (빈집 Vacant House), after which she lived in India for two years. This became the basis for her collection of linked stories, Bueok (부엌 Kitchen). In 2001 she received the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award for her novella Ttang wiui yeonggwang (땅 위의 영광 Glory on Earth).
Oh is actively involved in supporting developing countries, and in 2003 visited Iraq and Palestine as a literary representative of the anti-war movement, which became the basis for the reportage Abu alli jukjima - irakeu jeonjaengui girok (아부 알리 죽지마 - 이라크 전쟁의 기록 Don't Die, Abu Ali: A Record of the Iraq War). In 2007, she spent three months in Ramallah as writer-in-residence upon the invitation of the A M Quattan Foundation.
2. Writing
Oh's first novel, Nanjangi naraui gukgyeongil, portrays the lives of college friends Min-cheol and Mi-seon ten years after their participation in the student democracy movement of the 1980s. The author combines the theme of nihilism that swept over the young people after the post-democracy movement with her interest in feminist issues in a patriarchal society. The author's broader concern, however, is “peripheral lives” or the struggles of those people who remain outside the spheres of power and acceptance by the mainstream. The characters in Nanjangi naraui gukgyeongil represent such people: as political dissidents in the 1980s, they are alienated from the establishment and the mainstream and once again in 1990's they find themselves ostracized by their own friends who have adapted all too readily to the societal changes and new value system. In her feminist works such as "Binjip," Oh focuses on women as outsiders and outcasts of a male-centered society.
With India as its background, Bueok, a collection of linked stories published after the author returned from a two-year stay in that country, features characters of various unspecified nationalities who meet and interact in the communal space of the kitchen. The protagonist, a woman from Korea, matures through the clash of different value systems.
Oh's latest novel, Geonchukgaui jip (건축가의 집 The Architect's House), combines a family's history with the history of the city of Seoul. Set in the decade from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, the novel follows the resistance and upheaval that arose from the military dictatorship and development of the country, as well as over the contentious issues of national security and religion.
