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English(English) Article

A Glorious Openness: Novelist Kim Won Il | LIST

About the Article

Article
http://list.or.kr/node/960
Journal
list_Books from Korea
Issued Date
-
Page
-
Language
English(English)
Country
SOUTH KOREA
City
Seoul
Book
-
Writer
Kim Won il

About the Author

  • Kim Won il
  • Birth : 1942 ~ -
  • Occupation : Novelist
  • First Name : Won il
  • Family Name : Kim
  • Korean Name : 김원일
  • ISNI : 000000008175885X
  • Works : 35
Descriptions - 1 Languages
  • English(English)

A Glorious Openness: Novelist Kim Won Il Author's Profile By Kwon O-ryong on Nov 09 2014 23:57:02 Special Edition 2011 While writing Closely Reading Kim Won Il, I said the following: "While 20th century Korean history was harsh, it was doubly so for author Kim Won Il. He directly experienced the pain of war and national division, yet he was able to withstand this through moral integrity, channeling his energy into artistic will. As a result, he was successful in his life and literary work, becoming a cultural giant in the process." War, in particular, drove Kim into even more severe privation. War can decisively and continuously change one's destiny. His boyhood dreams of being a painter were snatched away by war. No matter how artistically talented he might have been, after the Korean War began Kim Won Il entered a desperate struggle against poverty in which painting was little more than a pipe dream. Then what about literature? Amidst such poverty, wouldn't literature be a luxury as well? Sartre once lamented, “What use is literature to a starving man?” Yet literature is different. When something within needs to be expressed, when my existence and life itself have fallen into the funk of meaninglessness, when I feel like I'd be better off dead, this desperation and urgency needs literature's succor. As György Lukács once said, literature proves the existence of one's soul... Around when did Kim Won Il become aware of a calling for literature? Kim said: "When I was 11-years-old, I first read one of Thomas Mann's novels. Before then I had been very introverted and timid, and because of our household's poverty I had an inferiority complex as well. After discovering the intense artistic and social exploration pursued in Mann's novels, I decided that instead of avoiding myself, I would look into my soul and discover a path toward a more open Kim. By recording this process in writing, I was able to achieve enlightenment." 

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