Kim You-jeong
| Kim You-jeong | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
January 18, 1908 Chuncheon, Gangwon,  Korean Empire
|
| Died | March 29, 1937 (aged 29) Seoul, Korea |
| Occupation | novelist, poet |
| Language | Korean |
| Nationality |
Korean Empire
|
| Citizenship |
Korean Empire
|
| Education |
Yonsei University Korea University |
| Period | 1932 ~ 1937 |
| Genre | novel, poet, essay |
| Website | |
| www |
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| Kim You-jeong | |
| Hangul | 김유정 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 金裕貞 |
| Revised Romanization | Gim Yujeong |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kim Yujŏng |
Kim You-jeong (Korean: 김유정; also romanised as Kim Yoo-jung, Kim Yu-chŏng and Kim Yu-jeong; 11 January 1908 – 29 March 1937) was a Korean novelist.
He is one of the famous novelists of Korea, also recognised as the icon of Chuncheon, where he was born. Kim You-jeong Literature Village and Gimyujeong Station, both located in Chuncheon was named after him.
Kim was born in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province on January 11, 1908. He was the son of a wealthy landowner. The family fortunes, however, were whittled away by his older brother, and Kim spent much of his adolescent and adult life in penury. Kim attended what is now Yonsei University in Seoul. He made his literary debut with the publication of "Wanderer Among the Hills” (Sangol nageune) in 1933 and won short fiction contests held by Chosun Ilbo and Chosun joongang Ilbo two years later. In 1935, he became a member of the literary coterie, The Society of Nine (Gu-inhoe), which included such prominent poets and fiction writers as Jeong Jiyong and Lee Sang. He has left us with some thirty stories, most of them published in 1935 and 1936. He died of pulmonary tuberculosis on March 29, 1937.
Kim's work was described as "rich and earthy". He wrote approximately 30 short stories, most of which were published in the three years before his death. His 1936 story The Camellias (동백꽃) is about the residents of a Korean farming village; its implicit sexuality was more explicit in his 1935 Rain shower (소낙비). His 1937 story The scorching heat was considered gloomy.
The prototypical Kim Yujeong protagonist might be the narrator of “Spring, Spring” (Bom bom, 1935), a simpleton who is slow to realize that his wily future father-in-law is exploiting his labor, or the husband in “Scorching Sun” (Ttaengbyeot), too ignorant to know that his wife’s illness is actually due to an overgrown baby in her womb. Bawdy dialogue and colloquial slang heighten the comic potential of such situations, but an undercurrent of sadness suggests the wretchedness of poverty-stricken lives. Embedded within Kim Yujeong’s lyrical approach to nature and robust characterization of peasant wholesomeness are indirect references to questions of class. Conflicts between tenants and middlemen, as well as the problem of absentee landlordism which rose sharply as a result of Japanese agricultural policy hint at the dark and bleak reality of rural Korea in 1930s.
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