skip-navigation

한국문학번역원 로고

TOP

Korean Literature Now

Back to Reviews

Romance and Rebellion: The Nokjidae (2 volumes) by Park Kyung-Ri scrap

by Kim Dongshikgo link October 23, 2014

Author Bio 작가 소개

박경리

Pak Kyongni

When Pak Kyongni debuted, she said "If I had been happy, I would have not begun writing."[9] Park also said later, "I live with my mother and daughter and had to support them financially by myself. I began writing since I had hope to get away from my adversity." Her sorrowful personal life surely influenced her works, where she emphasized human dignity.

Pak started her career as a writer with the novel, Calculations (계산, Gyesan) and her early work was heavily guided by her unfortunate life. Each narrator in her novels like Time of distrust (불신시대, Bulsin Sidae) and Time of Darkness (암흑시대, Amheuk Sidae) are often a daughter living with her mother who lost her husband and son, which was true with her own life. In her later work, The Daughters of Pharmacist Kim (김약국의 딸들, Kimyakgukui Ttaldeul), she still deals with characters who get over with their difficulties.[10] However, she got more objective point of view in that her fictional setting moved from the Korean war to everyday life and employed more various writing techniques and topics.

Pak showed the importance of human dignity in all her works. She defined human dignity as protecting the noblest thing for oneself. She criticized a tradition, a system, and authority which cause people not to protect their dignity, and also disdained people who lost their dignity because of their desires. Additionally, her works are concerned with human isolation, absolute trust in love.

Park Kyung-Ri is best known as the author of The Land. The Land, widely considered an epic masterpiece spanning the entire history of modern Korea, took the author 25 years to complete—from 1969 to 1994. Upon Park’s death in 2008, many Koreans reread all 21 volumes of The Land as a tribute to the author.

Park’s novel The Nokjidae has recently been published in book form for the first time. The Nokjidae was serialized in a newspaper from 1964 to 1965. Until now, it was but a line in the writer’s bibliography; readers could learn of its existence but had no access to the text. Now, in print again after 47 years, it offers a glimpse into Park Kyung-ri’s early work.

The Nokjidae captures the romance and rebellion of Korean youth in the mid-1960s. The people of this generation were born under Japanese colonial rule, children when Korea gained its independence, teenagers when the Korean War broke out, and young adults in the aftermath of the war.

The protagonist of the novel is Inae, an aspiring poet in her 20s. She was orphaned during the war and is now living with her uncle’s family. She drops out of college and travels to an island where she meets Jeong-hyun and falls in love. The course of love does not run smoothly for Inae, however, since there is another woman in Jeong-hyun’s life who dominates him completely. Inae returns to Seoul and starts working at Nokjidae, a musical salon.

Nokjidae is a place for writers, thinkers, and artists. Seeking temporary relief in their art, these members of the post-war generation are also searching for new possibilities in the relationships they cultivate there. Their inspiration comes from the countercultural movements of the western world of the 1950s to 1960s, namely the Beat Generation, Angry Young Men, and “flower power.” They are up-to-date with the latest cultural movements despite the poverty they face in a post-war society. Just as the Beat Generation strived to maintain integrity in the face of oppressive societal norms, the youth of The Nokjidae rebel against existing social order, customs, and institutions and yearn to build lives of their own.

Nokjidae is a place where existing norms are temporarily suspended, where the self is exalted through art, and the desire to lead a life of integrity is nurtured. Inae’s attitude to life as such can be summed up: “I am the master of my life, and my life is based on love.” When Jeong-hyun dies with the woman who controlled his life, Inae heads to the island where they first met. She refuses to follow the path expected of her, from student to wife to mother, and instead chooses to protect her integrity and the love that meant everything to her. To Inae, the island represents her own private Nokjidae and tragic utopia.

The Nokjidae is a novel of manners about the tortured youth of the 1960s. Their desires, so piercing in their purity, shine brilliantly through their voices. They are the ones who made history, who are now remembered in literature. 

Writer 필자 소개

Kim Dongshik

Kim Dongshik

Did you enjoy this article? 별점

Did you enjoy this article? Please rate your experience

Send