Lim Chulwoo (born 1954) is a South Korean novelist.
1. Life
Born in 1954 on Wando Island, South Jeolla Province, Lim Chulwoo made his literary debut in 1981 by winning the Seoul Shinmun New Writer’s Contest for his short story `Gaedoduk` (개도둑 The Dog Thief). His debut work and some of the stories included in his collection Jikseongwa dokgaseu (직선과 독가스 Straight Lines and Poison Gas: At the Hospital Wards), as well as his five-volume novel Bomnal (봄날 A Spring Day), all feature the Gwangju Uprising as their subject matter. In the 1990s, Lim published Bulgeun san, huin sae (붉은 산, 흰 새 Red Mountain, White Bird), Geu seome gago sipda (그 섬에 가고 싶다 The Island) and other works dealing with the Korean War and the division of the two Koreas, using his hometown of Pyeongil-do as their backdrop. He has received the Korean Creative Writing Prize, the Yi Sang Literary Award, the Danjae Literature Prize, the Yosan Literary Award and Daesan Literary Award. Lim is Professor Emeritus of creative writing at Hanshin University.
2. Writing
Lim is considered one of the major `May writers,` in that he deals with the Gwangju uprising of May 1980 as the literary subject matter of the greatest import. He has also been called the `discoverer of memories,` as he brings the most tragic events of Korean history to the present. His refined, restrained prose full of lyricism spurs readers to keep turning the page. During his childhood years in Pyeongil-do, Lim grew up with stories about the Korean War from adults who still talked about it with vivid immediacy. This is embodied in his first short story collection Abeojiui ttang (아버지의 땅 Father`s Land), whose characters belong to the generation with second hand experience of the war. `Dwianeneun baramsori` (뒤안에는 바람소리 The Sound of Wind in the Back) tells the story of those who are killed by the police and the North Korean army; `Geunal bam horongbureul balkigo` (그날 밤 호롱불을 밝히고 With Her Oil Lamp on, That Night) describes how friendly neighbors become enemies overnight; `Father`s Land` shows how people do not cultivate the land under which the bodies of those died in the war are buried, letting the grass grow taller and thicker. In `Gokdu undonghoe` (곡두운동회 The Illusory Field Day), the author represents the Bodo League Massacre committed in his hometown as a deceitful play. The other great influence on Lim`s writing is the Gwangju Uprising. Lim has said it is the first hand experience of the protest that made him a writer. The sense of survivor`s guilt and trauma are well portrayed in his two works with the same title, `Bomnal,` meaning `a spring day` in Korean. In the short story `Bomnal` (봄날 A Spring Day), because it was taboo to even mention Gwangju at the time, the incident remains implicit. However, through the narration of the protagonist Gilsu and the diaries of his friend Sangju, reality and imagination alternate, and the memories of the real event get clearer and clearer. The full-length novel Bomnal, published more than a decade after the short story, uses a documentary form incorporating a variety of materials and records, for a complete literary restoration of the uprising.
