“Because life has not turned out the way I wanted it to. Because that’s how it always is—as a child, you get no love from your parents, and at school, you get bad grades and never catch anyone’s eye. And after you’re all grown up, you keep peeking in the door of the gynecology clinic, and then wait for an hour, and another hour, at the café where a man has promised to meet you, gulping down several cups of weak coffee before leaving alone in the dark. Then, to top it off, the cat that crosses your path one day on a highway with green apples turns out to be a black cat.” (Pureun Sagwaga Inneun Gukdo [Highway with Green Apples], translated by Sora Kim-Russell, Goryeowon, 1995)
Bae Suah is a novelist known for a distinctive style that presents speculative ideas and imagery in unconventional ways.
1. Life
Born in 1965, Bae Suah began her literary career in 1993 with “Cheongubaekpalsip-pal Nyeonui Eoduun Bang” (“A Dark Room in Nineteen Eighty-Eight”), published in Fiction and Ideology. In 2001, she resigned from a job she had held for ten years and lived between Germany and Korea. Her experience in Germany marked a significant turning point in her writing. She became a full-time writer and translator. She began translating in the early 2000s, introducing some of her favorite overseas literature to Korean readers. She retranslated works by authors already familiar to them, including Hermann Hesse, Hans Christian Andersen, and Fernando Pessoa, in her own style, and translated works by Jakob Hein, Martin Walser, and W. G. Sebald into Korean for the first time.
2. Writing
Bae explores fragile human relationships, monotony, and the underlying anxiety and destruction beneath life through a unique and strikingly unfamiliar writing style. Her novels have been described as “the most unfamiliar in Korean literature” and are regarded as shocking and uncannily captivating. In her earlier novels, Rhapsody in Blue (1996) and Naneun Ije Niga Jigyeow (I’m Tired of You Now) (2000), she primarily depicts marginalized people. One of her major works, Pureun Sagwaga Inneun Gukdo (Highway with Green Apples) (1995), portrays the young generation of the 1990s, whose practices reflect a post-ideological tendency marked by the breakdown of family-centered values and the rise of individualism, in an enchanting manner. The short stories in this collection, such as “Cheongubaekpalsip-pal Nyeonui Eoduun Bang” (“A Dark Room in Nineteen Eighty-Eight”), “Pureun Sagwaga Inneun Gukdo” (“Highway with Green Apples”), and “Yeoseot Beonjjae Yeoja Aiui Seulpeum” (The Sixth Child’s Sadness”), vividly depict the practices of a consumer society and the anxiety that lies beneath its surface. Bae’s novels reveal the seismic shifts in the literary landscape of the early 2000s. She employs an intertextual writing style that reveals and draws on relationships between multiple texts, while also interweaving various media such as animation, photography, and film, to create meaning. This is reflected in the way the plot unfolds around the narrator’s dialogue in Ivana (2002). Eseiseuteuui Chaeksang (A Greater Music) (2003) and Dokakja (Solitary Scholar) (2004) are her first works where ideas begin to take precedence over plot. The captivating images, a key feature of her novels, are extended into endlessly linked speculative sentences. Since then, the plots in her novels have weakened, while long, flowing sentences and imagery have become central to her narrative.
Reference
Fiction
Pureun Sagwaga Inneun Gukdo (Highway with Green Apples), Goryeowon, 1995
Rhapsody in Blue, Goryeowon, 1995
Baraminhyeong (Wind Doll), Moonji Publishing co., Ltd., 1996
Bujuuihan Sarang (Careless Love), Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 1996
Cheolsu (Nowhere to Be Found), Jakka Publishing Co., Ltd., 1998
Simyatongsin (Midnight Communication), Hainaim, 1998
Geu Saramui Cheotsarang (His First Love), Tree of Thought, 1999
Bulgeun Son Keulleop (Red Hand Club), Hainaim, 2000
Naneun Ije Niga Jigyeow (I’m Tired of You Now), Irum, 2000
Soseoljip No.4 (Selected Works of Fiction No. 4), Tree of Thought, 2001
Ivana, Imago, 2002
Dongmurwon Kinteu (Zoo Kind), Leegaseo, 2002
Illyoil Seukiyaki Sikdang (Sunday at the Sukiyaki Restaurant), Moonji Publishing co., Ltd., 2003
Eseiseuteuui Chaeksang (A Greater Music), Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 2003
Dokakja (Solitary Scholar), Yolimwon Publishing Co., 2004
Dangnagwideul (Donkeys), Irum, 2005
Hul, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 2006
Bukjjok Geosil (North Living Room), Moonji Publishing co., Ltd., 2009
Olppaemiui Eopseum (North Station), Changbi Publishers, Inc., 2010
Seourui Najeun Eondeokdeul (Recitation), Jaeum&Moeum Publishing, 2011
Allyeojiji Aneun Bamgwa Haru (Untold Night and Day), Jaeum&Moeum Publishing, 2013
Millena, Millena, Hwangholhan (Milena, Milena, Ecstatic), Theoria, 2016
Baemgwa Mul (Snake and Water), Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 2017
Eoneu Haruga Dareudamyeon, Geugeoseun Waeilkka (If One Day is Different from the Others, Why Would It Be?), Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 2017
Meolli Itda Uruneun Neujeul Geosida (Uru Will Be Late, Far Away), Workroom Press, 2019
Bujuuihan Sarang (Careless Love), Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 2021
Soksagim Umukan Jeongwon (Whispers of Sunken Garden), EunHaeng NaMu Publishing Co., Ltd., 2024
Allyeojiji Aneun Bamgwa Haru (Untold Night and Day), Ezbook, 2024
'94 Hyeonjangbipyeonggaga Ppobeun Olhaeui Joeun Soseol (Novel of the Year Selected by Critics, 1994), Hyundae Munhak Publishing Co., Ltd., 1994 (multiple authors)
(1990-1995) Tallaengjeonsidaeui Munhak: Soseolseonjip 1-2 (Post-Cold War Literature: Selected Works of Fiction, 1990–1995, vols. 1–2), Goryeowon, 1996 (multiple authors)
Urisidae Daepyojakga Daepyojakpum (Defining Writers and Works of Our Time), Yuwon, 1997 (multiple authors)
'97 Usu Danpyeonsoseol Moeum (Outstanding Short Stories, 1997), Sammum, 1997 (multiple authors)
'97nyeoneul Daepyohaneun Munje Soseol (Controversial Fiction of 1997), Hankookmunhwasa, 1997 (multiple authors)
'98 Hyeonjangbipyeonggaga Ppobeun Olhaeui Joeun Soseol (Novel of the Year Selected by Critics, 1998), Hyundae Munhak Publishing Co., Ltd., 1998 (multiple authors)
Munyejungang Seonjeong '99 Choegojakga Danpyeonseon (The Best Short Stories of 1999, Selected by Munye Joongang), JoongAng M&B, 1999 (multiple authors)
'99 Uri Sidaeui Hwajesoseol (Most Discussed Fiction of Our Time, 1999), Pyeongminsa, 1999 (multiple authors)
Mindungsaneseoui Harutbam (A Night on a Treeless Mountain), Isu Publishing, 1999 (multiple authors)
Geuga Moreuneun Jangso (A Place Unknown to Him), Isu Publishing, 2000 (multiple authors)
Je2hoe Hwang Sunwon Munhaksang Susangjakpumjip, 2002 (The 2nd Hwang Sun-won Literary Award Anthology, 2002), JoongAng M&B, 2002 (multiple authors)
Bae Suah, Kim Yeonsu oe (Bae Suah, Kim Yeonsu and Others), Changbi Publishers, Inc., 2006 (multiple authors)
Je9hoe Hwang Sunwon Munhaksang Susangjakpumjip, 2009 (The 9th Hwang Sun-won Literary Award Anthology, 2009), Joongangbooks, 2009 (multiple authors)
Baukiseuui Mal: 2024 Je18hoe Kim Yujeong Munhaksang Susangjakpumjip (Words of Baucis: The 18th Kim Yujeong Literary Award Anthology, 2024), EunHaeng NaMu Publishing Co., Ltd, 2024 (multiple authors)
Essays
Nae Ane Namjaga Sumeo Itda (There Is a Man Hidden Inside Me), Irum, 2000
Jamjaneun Namjawa Iljuireul (A Week with a Sleeping Man), Gasse, 2014
Cheoeum Boneun Yumongmin Yeoin (A Nomad Woman I Saw for the First Time), Nanda, 2015
Jakbyeoldeul Sungandeul (Farewells, Moments), Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 2023
Poetry
Manil Dangsini Sarangeul Mannamyeon (If You Meet Your Love Someday), Renaissance 1997
Translated Works
Jakob Hein, Naui Cheot Beonjjae Tisyeocheu (My First T-shirt), Samtoh Co.,Ltd, 2004
Jakob Hein, Eojjeomyeon Geugoseun Areumdauljido (Perhaps It’s Beautiful There), Younglim Cardinal, 2007
Michael Peinkofer, Toteu Sinjeonui Geurimja (The Shadow of the Temple of Thoth), Younglim Cardinal, 2007
Martin Walser, Buranui Kkot (Blossoms of Fear), Moonji Publishing co., Ltd., 2008
Jenny Erpenbeck, Geugose Jibi Isseosseulkk (Visitation), Eulyoo Publishing Co., Ltd., 2016
Helene Hegemann, Aholloteul Rodeukil (Axolotl Roadkill), Openbooks, 2010
Bertolt Brecht, Jeonjaenggyobo (War Primer), Workroom Press, 2011
Dimitri Verhulst, Samurui Antakkaumseong (The Misfortunates), Openbooks, 2011
Christian Kracht, Na Yeogi Isseuri Haetbit Soge Geurigo Geuneul Soge (I Will Be Here in Sunshine and in Shadow), Moonji Publishing co., Ltd., 2012
Edgar Hilsenrath, Nachiwa Ibalsa (The Nazi and the Barber), Openbooks, 2012
Sadegh Hedayat, Nunmeon Bueongi (The Blind Owl), Moonji Publishing co., Ltd., 2013
Max Picard, Ingangwa Mal (Man and Words), Springdaysbook, 2013
Christian Kracht, Jeguk (Imperium), Moonji Publishing co., Ltd., 2012
Franz Kafka, Kkum (A Dream), Workroom Press, 2014
Thomas Bernhard, Biteugensyutainui Joka (Wittgenstein's Nephew), Philosophik, 2014
Fernando Pessoa, Buranui Seo (The Book of Disquiet), Springdaysbooks, 2014
W. G. Sebald, Hyeongijeung. Gamjeongdeul (Vertigo), Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 2014
Hermann Hesse, Hesega Saranghan Sungandeu (The Moments Hesse Loved), Eulyoo Publishing Co., Ltd., 2015
Hans Christian Andersen, Andereusen Donghwajip (Andersen’s Fairy Tales), Hummingbird, 2015
António Lobo Antunes, Daesimmungwanui Bimangnok (The Inquisitors' Manual), Springdaysbook, 2016
Bernhard Schlink, Gyedan Wiui Yeoja (The Woman on the Stairs), Sigongsa, 2016
W. G. Sebald Jayeoneul Ttara. Gichosi (After Nature), Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 2017
Robert Walser, Sanchaekja (The Walk), Hankyoreh, 2017
Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund, That Book, 2018
Jenny Erpenbeck, Modeun Jeonyeogi Jeomul Ttae (The End of Days), Hangilsa, 2018
Hermann Hesse, Demian, That Book, 2018
Clarice Lispector, Dalgyalgwa Dal (The Egg and the Chicken), Springdaysbook, 2019
Aglaja Veteranyi, Aineun Wae Pollenta Sogeseo Kkeulneunga (Why the Child Is Cooking in the Polenta), Workroom Press, 2021
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