Jang Jung-il (born 1962) is a South Korean poet, playwright, and novelist.
1. Life
Jang Jung-il was born in Daegu. He embarked on his literary career in 1984 when four of his poems including “Gangjeong ganda” (강정 간다 Going to Gangjeong) were published in the third issue of Eoneoui segye. In 1987, his play Sillaegeuk (실내극 Interior Drama) won the Dong-a Ilbo New Writer's Contest, marking his debut as a playwright. His first poetry collection, Haembeogeoae daehan meongsang (햄버거에 대한 명상 Meditation on Hamburgers) won the Kim Su-Young Literary Award in 1988, making him the youngest ever winner of the prize at the time.
The same year, Jang made his debut as a novelist with the short story "Pellikan" (펠리칸 Pelican), published in the Spring 1988 issue of Segyeui munhak. In 1990, with the publication of his novel Adami nuntteul ttae (아담이 눈뜰 때 When Adam Opens His Eyes), Jang declared that he would no longer write poetry and thereafter focused on novels, criticism, and drama. His fourth novel, Naege geojinmareul haebwa (내게 거짓말을 해봐 Try Lying to Me) was promptly banned by the authorities upon its publication in 1996; all copies were destroyed and those already sold were recalled for destruction. Jang was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and served one-third of that time. The novel was made into a film by Jang Sun-woo under the title Lies in 1999.
2. Writing
With the publication of his first poems in 1984, Jang Jung-il was quickly labeled a "masochistic terrorist," and a poet who "exposes pretensions of wickedness in society with devilishly puritanical spirit." Despite the fact that his formal education ended after middle school, Jang possesses encyclopedic knowledge of poetry, music, drama and culture, which serves as the wellspring of his creativity and innovativeness. In style, Jang's fictional works are post-modernist in their playfulness and irreverence. Thematically, his works explore the disintegration of traditional family structure and the loss of identity which often manifest in sexual perversion.
Jang's inimitable creativity and skill are apparent in When Adam Opens His Eyes, viewed as one of the groundbreaking works of Korean literature of the 1990s. Set in 1988 when the Seoul Olympics were held, the novel depicts the general changes that occurred in the 1990s, which can be summed up as individualism, liberalism, and popular culture. Opening with the famous lines, "When I was 19 years old, all I wanted was to have a typewriter, a book of Munch's paintings, and a turntable which I can connect to a cassette player and listen to music. Those items were the only things I wished to get from the world as a 19-year-old,"[1] the novel follows how the protagonist pays the price for the three things he desires and becomes an adult. He poses as a nude model in front of a middle-aged woman painter and acquires the book of paintings; gets anally raped by a gay man who owns a record store and gains the turntable. In this process of replacing and exchanging desires, his friend Hyeon-jae kills himself. In shock, the narrator realizes that he has to get away from 'the worship of objects in the modern world' and the desires of 'the false paradise.' He gives up college, buys the typewriter with his tuition fee, and starts to write sentences about 'the real paradise.'
Much of Jang Jung-il's work has been adapted into movies or plays, including his Gin yeohaeng (긴여행 Long Journey) that was staged as Oidipuseuwaui yeohaeng (오이디푸스와의 여행 A Journey with Oedipus). Jang’s work relies on the innovative technique of communicating through self-destruction. Exposing the destructive evil lying underneath the seemingly wholesome exterior of the society, the author purposely stimulates a feeling of discomfort in the readers while revealing himself fully and without shame.
Reference
[1] Jang Jung-il, et al. When Adam Opens His Eyes. Champaign, Dalkey Archive Press, 2013. p.9
