Park Hyoung Su (1972 - ) is a South Korean writer. As one of the representative writers of Korean literature during the 2000s, Park Hyoung Su is known for his strong awareness of literary genres and striking works that experiment with diverse forms. From trivial matters of daily life to vast histories of civilizations, the subject matters of his works are wide-ranging, displaying an extraordinary imagination and his superb storytelling abilities.1)
1. Life
Park Hyoung Su was born in 1972 in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. From an early age, he struggled with hearing difficulties. He reportedly could not read or write at all in the first grade, and could barely do so starting in the second grade.2) During a medical examination in 2007, he was told that he could completely lose his hearing within a few years, but he calmly resolved to leave behind writings that would serve as “a record of my hearing’s final journey.” 3) His 2012 autobiographical novel, Eotteon goyo (어떤 고요 A Certain Quietude), can be seen as the result of this resolution. In the third grade, he transferred to a school in Seoul and won a writing contest, prompting his determination to continue writing. He later majored in Korean Language and Literature at Hanyang University. He saved up money by working a variety of part-time jobs—such as welding, working as a gas station attendant, and handing out flyers—and would travel to a foreign country during every school vacation.4) Even after he officially became a writer, he occasionally went on trips abroad to find inspirations for his stories.5) For three years, he continuously struggled in the annual spring literary contests until 2000, when he finally published the short story “Tokkireul gireugi jeone aradueoya hal geotdeul” (토끼를 기르기 전에 알아두어야 할 것들 “Things to Know Before Raising Rabbits”) in the magazine, Hyundae Munhak, and made his debut. His first short story collection, Tokkireul gireugi jeone aradueoya hal geotdeul, was published in 2003 and his novel, Saebyeogui nana (새벽의 나나 Nana at Dawn, 2010) won the Daesan Literary Award in 2010. In 2011, he started working as a professor in the Department of Media and Creative Writing at Korea University.
2. Writing
General Characteristics
Starting with his debut work, Tokkireul gireugi jeone aradueoya hal geotdeul, Park Hyoung Su has been appraised as sharply expressing humanity’s interior loneliness and the problem of death.6) Through a strange imagination, chilly humor, and cerebral discussions, his early works ask weighty questions that prompt readers to view the world and humanity with a new perspective. His more recent works are characterized by a broader view that observes human society’s general flow and the novel’s overall position.
Representative Works
“Tokkireul gireugi jeone aradueoya hal geotdeul” (2000)
This short story follows a married woman who, after losing a rabbit, ponders the cause of its death and then dies just like the rabbit. First unfolding as a realistic narrative where the wife raises a rabbit, the story then switches to a fantasy that portrays the wife crawling around on all fours in the backyard and nibbling grass like a rabbit, finally reverting once more to a realistic narrative that ponders the causes of the wife’s death. Aiming to investigate a diminishing sense of reality and the modern person’s loneliness from the perspective of the subconsciousness’ abyss, this story has been appraised as exemplifying the intense spirit of Park Hyoung Su’s prose.7)
Saebyeogui nana (2010)
Saebyeogui nana traces various incidents that occur in a place called “Nana.” Though on a superficial level, it is a love story that follows a Korean named Leo and a woman named “Ploy” who works in the red-light district, their relationship is merely the framework for incorporating numerous digressions to explore the journey-like lives of humans.8) Park Hyoung Su has stated that this novel is ultimately about decisions, 9) and it demonstrates the way that the decisions we make in our lives create several paths. Writer Kim Miwol, who married Park Hyoung Su in 2014, described the work as “With descriptions that are as detailed as they are tenacious, along with the wit and pathos hidden within its sentences, the story asks sharp questions about humanity and the world that causes the reader, unbeknownst even to themselves, to also wander Nana at dawn.” 10) Park Hyoung Su won the 18th Daesan Literary Award with this work.
“Geogi innayo” (거기 있나요 Are You There, 2016)
His short story, “Geogi innayo,” which won the 10th Kim Yu-Jeong Literary Award,
displays a unique imagination in representing the kind of processes that humans underwent over the course of evolution through quantum mechanics.11) By illuminating how systems such as class structures are formed through an experiment known as “Research on Representing the Motivation for Evolution,” where researchers observe how a society created between quark particles form language and establish stability, the story re-interprets problems of power and violence in human history.
Critical Reception
Park Hyoung Su’s stories have been reviewed as mixing, sorting, and rearranging all kinds of genres and discourses—such as humor, true love, science fiction, philosophy, literary history, mythology, psychoanalysis, science, parody, essay—in order to create hybrid novels of a new era.12) Over the course of becoming immersed in a “Park Hyoung Su Brand Story,” readers are first astonished by its disorienting imagination, then marvel at its sophistication, and finally, just as they are about to become slightly depressed, take in its pleasurable humor. Because his works contain overtones of somber jokes and ludicrous sorrow, Park Hyoung Su has also been described as an “ironist.” 13) In the post-script to his 2014 work, Kkeurabi (끄라비 Krabi, Thailand), Jang Eunsu stated that Park Hyoung Su was the “Devil of Jokes”— that his talent was not in cheerfulness, but in a deep condolence for the lives of the fallen. That is, the not-so-hidden secret of Park Hyoung Su’s writing was not its ability to foster sadness after laughter, but to create laughter amid sadness.14)
Reference
1) 2) 4) 8) 11) Wikipedia Korea: “Park Hyoung Su”
https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%B0%95%ED%98%95%EC%84%9C
3) Kim Seulgi. “Passionately Written Literature of Contradictions… Park Hyoung Su’s Short Story Collection, Kkeurabi.” Maeil gyeongje [The Daily Economic]. 15 May 2014. https://www.mk.co.kr/news/culture/view/2014/05/753231/
5) When he wrote his first novel, Saebyeogui nana (2010), he spent seven months in Thailand and spent 20 days in Myanmar during the summer of 2012, where he underwent a strange experience: “There was a flood and the hotel gave us lifebuoys. I fell asleep while wearing the lifebuoy, and discovered that the buoy had been swept away to the bathroom while I was asleep. It turned out that there was a huge drainage hole there, and all the hotel guests had floated down there.” Kim Gyeongeun. “[2012 Dongin Literary Award] ‘To Break Down, That is My Literature.” Chosun Ilbo, 27 September 2012.
http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/09/26/2012092603420.html
6) Naver Unabridged Dictionary of Modern Korean Literature: “Park Hyoung Su”
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=2075562&cid=41708&categoryId=41737
7) Yi Giho. “‘I will write 40 Years of Park Hyoung Su’s Life in this way.’” Munhak Dongne Magazine, Fall 2012.
9) Kang Yujeong. “[This Month’s Novel] Park Hyoung Su’s Saebyeogui nana.” Kyunghyang Daily News, 30 May 2010.
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201005301707145&code=960205
10) Kim Miwol. “[Reading Trends] Saebyeogui nana.” Kyunghyang Daily News, 30 September 2010.
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201009302228325&code=960207
12) O Seokgi. “[Books] Looking Forward to an ‘Imagination That Will Catch You Off Guard.’” Gangwon Ilbo, 10 December 2011. http://www.kwnews.co.kr/nview.asp?s=601&aid=211120900005
13) Kwon Huicheol. “Irony and Analogy.” Munhak Dongne Magazine, Fall 2018.
14) Jang Eunsu. “[Classics of the 21st Century] (65) Park Hyoung Su’s Jajeongui piksyeon.” Kyunghyang Daily News, 12 May 2017.
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201705121939005&code=960205
