Yi In-seong (born 1953) is a South Korean modern novelist.
1. Life
Yi In-seong was born in Jinhae and grew up in Seoul. He was raised by a family of academics and as a teenager embraced aestheticism and began to work on his own writing. Yi completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in French literature at Seoul National University. He taught French literature at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and then Seoul National University before taking early retirement in 2006 to focus on his writing.
Yi In-seong made his literary debut in 1980, publishing Natseon sigan sogeuro (낯선 시간 속으로 Seasons of Exile) in the quarterly Literature and Intelligence. His works include the short story collections Natseon sigan sogeuro, Haneopsi najeun sumgyeol (한없이 낮은 숨결A Endlessly Whispered Breath), Gang eogwie seom hana (강 어귀에 섬 하나 An Island at the River’s Mouth) and the novel Michyeobeorigo sipeun, michyeojiji anneun (미쳐버리고 싶은, 미쳐지지 않는 Crazy but Not), among others. He is known for his experimental style and literary world defined by a singular consciousness. Natseon sigan sogeuro been published in French, German, Spanish, and Chinese translations. Michyeobeorigo sipeun, michyeojiji anneun and Gang eogwie seom hana have been published in French.
2. Writing
Yi In-seong sent shock waves throughout the world of Korean literature with his first work, Natseon sigan sogeuro, which experimented with a radical deconstruction of form. Since then, he has opened up a new horizon for novels through relentless linguistic experimentation. Such literary practices have always been anti-mainstream in the world of Korean literature. Yi did not align himself with the trend of politicizing literature, which spread extensively amid the maelstrom of anti-authoritarianism from the 1970s, and since the end of the 1980s, he firmly resisted the commercial tendencies of literature, which became common after the democratization of South Korea and the fall of the socialist states in Eastern Europe. [1]
With a spirit of experimentation, Yi In-seong has consistently challenged the narrative grammar of realism and conventional assumptions regarding the relationship between the author, the text, and the reader. Natseon sigan sogeuro tells the familiar story of a young man's wanderings, but employs narrative techniques designed to defamiliarize the depicted reality, such as blending of tenses, fusion of fantasy and reality, and overlapping of time sequences. Geu seworui mudeom (그 세월의 무덤 The Tomb of the Years Past) and Jigeum geuga nae apeseo (지금 그가 내 앞에서 Now He is in Front of Me) also employ some of these techniques to give shape to the inner consciousness of his characters. What Yi seeks to problematize is the perceived stability of the dichotomy between the performer and the spectator, the writer and the reader of the text, and ultimately the self and the other.
In "Dangsine daehaeseo" (당신에 대해서 About You) and "Naui jagi jinsul, dangsinui simmune uihan" (나의 자기 진술, 당신의 심문에 의한 My Statement, According to Your Interrogation), the author plays with various personal pronouns in order to deconstruct the stability of separate identities. Through such experiments, Yi attempts to heighten readers’ consciousness and engage them more actively in the act of reading. Recognizing the violence implicit in language, these works dismantle established ways of reading and the habits of thought associated with such conventions.
Reference
[1] Korean Literature Now. https://kln.or.kr/frames/interviewsView.do?bbsIdx=547
