Lee Ho-cheol (1932-2016) was a South Korean novelist.
1. Life
Born in Wonsan, South Hamgyeong Province, Lee Ho-cheol was in his last year of high school when the Korean War broke out in 1950. After being drafted and then getting captured as a prisoner of war, he managed to return to his hometown, only to be separated from his family again when he fled south.
Lee made his literary debut when "Talhyang" (탈향 Far from Home) was published in Munhak Yesul in 1955 on the recommendation of his literary idol, Hwang Sun-won. In 1960 he was sent to observe talks held at the border in Panmunjom and was able to speak with fellow journalists from North Korea. The short story "Panmunjom" (판문점 Panmunjom) is based on this experience.
During the 1970s and 80s Lee was heavily involved in the anti-dictatorship, prodemocracy struggle but continued to write prolifically, winning the Hyundae Literary Award, the Dongin Literary Award, and the Daesan Literary Award. His notable works include the novels Seoureun manwonida (서울은 만원이다 Seoul is Heaving), Geu gyeourui gin gyegok (그 겨울의 긴 계곡 The Deep Valley of That Winter), Mun (문 The Gate), and Namnyeoksaram bungnyeoksaram (남녘사람 북녘사람 Southerners, Northerners); and the short story collections Dalajineun saldeul (닳아지는 살들 Wasting Away) and Panmunjom (판문점 Panmunjom and Other Stories). His works have been translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Polish, and Hungarian.
2. Writing
Lee Ho-cheol, one of Korea’s most renowned writers, spent a lifetime studying the issues of war and division. His early stories, such as "Somyo" (소묘 A Sketch) and "Nasang" (나상 The Statue of a Nude) explore the emotional wounds of the war scarring ordinary lives. "Payeolgu" (파열구 The Point of Rupture) illuminates the conflict between those who benefitted from the war and those ruined by it. In "Panmunjom," the author's own experience of losing his home in the North does not simply remain on the personal level, but entwines with historical reality to hint at greater problems of social dysfunction.
Seoureun manwonida is a novel of manners that enjoyed immense popularity when it was first serialized in the Dong-a Ilbo in 1966. Most of the characters in the novel are either refugees from the North or farmers from rural areas who have come in search of a better future in the city. Seoul, a crowded space filled with poverty, fraud, prostitution and other social ills, corrupts them before long and they come to accept a way of life based on cunning rather than true intelligence, quick wits rather than hard work.
Southerners, Northerners, Lee's most ambitious work, is written from the perspective of a young North Korean soldier. The five stories collected in this volume preserve the author's own experience of the Korean War, starting with when he was drafted into the North Korean army at the age of 18. Lee has said, "If I had to pick just one of those works to define my writing it would be Southerners, Northerners. It’s a novel about when I was captured as a prisoner of war by the Southern army in 1950, and it contains my life and experiences from that time until I finished writing it in 1996. It took me more than ten years to write, from the mid 1980s to the 1990s. In a way my life is bound in those pages."[1]
Reference
[1] Korean Literature Now. Vol.33, Autumn 2016. https://kln.or.kr/frames/interviewsView.do?bbsIdx=410
