Yi Ki-yong (1896 – 1988) was a Korean novelist.
1. Life
Yi Ki-yong was born in Asan, South Chungcheong Province. He wrote under the name Minchon. In 1922 Yi attended the Seiisku School of English in Tokyo but returned to Korea in 1923 following the Great Kanto earthquake. After his return, he focused on writing, and made his literary debut in 1924 publishing the story "Oppaui bimil pyeonji" (오빠의 비밀 편지 Oppa's Secret Letter) in Kaebyok. His other works include "Seohwa" (서화 Rat Fire), Ingansueop (인간수업 Human Lessons), Gohyang (고향 Hometown), Singaeji (신개지 Frontier), Ttang (땅 Land), Dumangang (두만강 Tumen Yiver), Bom (봄 Spring), and the plays Geudeurui nammae (그들의 남매 Brother and Sister) and Wolhui (월희 Wolhui), among others. His novel Singaeji was made into a film directed by Yoon Bong-chun in 1942.
In 1925, Yi went to work at the Joseon Jigwang, a journal promoting proletarian literature, and became a member of the Korean Artists' Proletarian Federation (KAPF). He was arrested in 1931 during the Governor-General's first raid on KAPF and was released the following year on a suspended sentence.
After liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Yi moved to North Korea where he was key in creating the orthodox position on literature in North Korea, serving for several years in the North Korean Federation of Literature and Arts. He is reported to have died in August 1988.
2. Writing
One of the leading writers to emerge from the proletarian literature camp, Yi Ki-yong explored the miserable lives of peasants exploited by their landlords and oppressed by colonial capitalism. His stories "Hongsu" (홍수 Flood) and "Seohwa," serialized in the Chosun Ilbo in 1930 and 1933, respectively, represent quintessential “peasant literature” and describe the reality of rural hardships through the proletarian perspective. "Seohwa," in particular, makes keen observations of the dual nature of peasants as part of proletarian class as well as propertied class. While the debate concerning peasant literature at the time focused on defining the relationship between peasants and the urban proletariat, Yi Ki-yong proposed that the peasants, under colonial capitalism, were no longer a unified class.
In his works, Yi Ki-yong identifies the extremely poor peasantry, equipped with anti-imperialist perspective through their firsthand experiences with oppression, as the suitable comrade to the proletariat in class struggles. These views are perfected in his landmark novel Gohyang, first serialized in the Chosun Ilbo. Gohyang, like Yi Kwang-su's Heuk (흙 The Soil) and Shim Hun's Sangnoksu (상록수 The Evergreen), focuses on intellectuals who return to their hometown and devote their lives to the project of enlightening oppressed peasants.
