Jo Jeong-rae (born 1943) is a South Korean novelist.
1. Life
Jo Jeong-rae was born at Sonamsa Temple in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province. His father Jo Jong-hyeon was a married Buddhist priest, a result of Japanese colonial policy at the time, and also a sijo poet.
As a child Jo Jeong-rae would follow his father around and repeat the sijo he was fond of quoting, sparking his early interest in literature. The family moved to Nonsan in 1949, but evacuated to the South when the Korean War broke out. As an outsider, Jo Jeong-rae was unpopular with the local children and got into frequent fights. Jo attended Posung High School in Seoul and studied Korean literature at Dongguk University, graduating in 1966. In 1967 he married the poet Kim Cho-hye. Jo found work as a high school teacher and wrote in his spare time.
He made his literary debut in 1970, publishing the short story `Numyeong` (누명 A False Charge) in Hyundae Munhak, marking the beginning of an extremely prolific career. Jo Jeong-rae`s popular multi-volume novels Taebaeksanmaek (태백산맥 Taebaek Mountain Range) and Arirang (아리랑 Arirang), both of which have come to be considered modern classics since their publication in the 1980s, are widely considered to be the epitome of his talent. With the publication of his novel Hangang (한강 Han River), Jo finally completed his trilogy of works dedicated to modern Korean history. Sales of the series reached record-breaking numbers in South Korea, selling over 10 million copies.
2. Writing
Jo Jeong-rae`s epic historical trilogy, begun in 1983 and eventually completed in 2002, comprises Taebaeksanmaek, Arirang, and Hangang. Each novel is over ten volumes in length, and each deals with different aspects of the turbulent history of Korea in the modern era.
The first novel, Taebaeksanmaek, examines the five-year period between the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 to the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, with detailed flashbacks and backstory contextualizing the deep ideological conflict that culminated in violence and the division of Korea. The second novel, Arirang, is technically a prequel to Taebaeksanmaek, and covers the Japanese colonial period of Korean history.
One of the primary themes in Jo Jeong-rae`s work, concern regarding the socio-economic roots of the division of Korea and the search for Korean reunification, is also present in his other, shorter works of fiction, such as `Han geu geuneurui jari` (한 그 그늘의 자리 Sorrow, That Shaded Place), `Yuhyeongui ttang` (유형의 땅 Land of Exile), `Inganui gyedan` (인간의 계단 Human Stairs), and `Baktoui hon` (박토의 혼 The Soul of a Barren Land). Many of his earlier works, however, such as `Cheongsandaek` (청산댁 A Woman from Cheongsan), `Pongnyeok gyosa` (폭력 교사 The Violent Instructor), `Bitaljin eumji` (비탈진 음지 The Shaded Slope), `Cheondongseol sidae` (천동설 시대 The Age of Geocentrism), and `Ibangjidae` (이방지대 Foreign Land), tend to reconstruct stories of traditional rustic life, targeting and satirizing the various absurdities of life in a much more general fashion.
