Pyun Hye-young (born 1972) is a South Korean writer.
1. Life
Pyun was born in Seoul in 1972. She began writing in 1993, when she enrolled in Seoul Institute of the Arts to study creative writing. She had thought that only those who were born with the talent wrote fiction, but decided to write as she began to gain recognition for her writing.
In 2000, she made her literary debut with the publication of her short story “Iseul teolgi” (이슬 털기 Shaking Off Dew). Even after her debut, she continued to work for a study magazine publisher for nearly 10 years while pursuing her writing.
She quit her job in October 2008 to write full time. Since 2013, she also teaches creative writing at Myongji University.
2. Writing
Pyun is one of South Korea’s leading writers of the 2000s who has received attention for her grotesque images and narratives that transcend causal logic. Corpses, feces, vomit, stink, water rot, and maggots are common motifs.
In “Jeosuji” (저수지 Reservoir) a black pool of water inhabited by a monster reveals its inside, while in “Aoigadeun” (아오이가든 Aoi Gardens), it rains frogs, some of which fall on asphalt and burst open, while a cat also reveals its innards. A city full of garbage and rife with infectious diseases features in her novel Jaewa ppalgang (재와 빨강 City of Ash and Red). These grotesque images effectively evoke loss of humanity, lack of communication, and the evils of modern civilization by making the familiar unfamiliar.
Another characteristic of Pyun’s works is their exploration of death. In her work, death serves as an opportunity to confirm the otherness of humans. In `Sichedeul` (시체들 Corpses), a man realizes that his wife who drowned in a stream has forever become a stranger to him, while in “Haemul 1 kilogeuraem” (해물 1킬로그램 One Kilogram of Seafood), a family who experiences a child’s disappearance and death comes to understand that the child who was thought to be their possession also had otherness. Similarly, in The Hole, Ogi, the main character, feels a sense of eeriness from his mother-in-law after the death of his wife. In such ways, Pyun uses death to show that there is an area of otherness in human life that can never be understood.
Pyun has showed a particular interest in identifying the eerie and grotesque amidst the mundane routine of everyday life, as seen in her collection Jeonyeogui guae (저녁의 구애 Evening Proposal). An employee working in the copy room repeats the same tasks every day in “Dongilhan jeomsim” (동일한 점심 Monotonous Lunch); factory workers make the same canned food every day in “Tongjorim gongjang” (통조림 공장 Canning Factory); and an office worker sent on a short-term stay to another town repeats the same living pattern in “Ttokkiui myo” (토끼의 묘 Rabbit Tomb).
In this way, Pyun’s works indirectly criticize the contemporary civilization through the descriptions of individuals who have become thoroughly incapacitated in the huge system.
