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English(English) Article

One Writer’s Life: Novelist Kim Insuk | LIST

About the Article

Article
http://list.or.kr/content/one-writer%E2%80%99s-life-novelist-kim-insuk
Journal
list_Books from Korea
Issued Date
-
Page
-
Language
English(English)
Country
SOUTH KOREA
City
Seoul
Book
-
Writer
Kim Insuk

About the Author

  • Kim Insuk
  • Birth : 1963 ~ -
  • Occupation : Novelist
  • First Name : Insuk
  • Family Name : Kim
  • Korean Name : 김인숙
  • ISNI : 0000000000462652
  • Works : 19
Descriptions - 1 Languages
  • English(English)

One Writer’s Life: Novelist Kim Insuk   By Shim Jinkyung on Oct 19 2014 13:00:07 Vol.14 Winter 2011 Shim Jinkyung: You have been writing for nearly 30 years straight since your literary debut. But your image is still that of a young writer, and in fact, your works are considered alongside the works of young contemporary writers. What do you think about the way your works are appraised?       Kim Insuk: I do make an effort to write like the younger writers. I debuted at 20, and debuting at such a young age can be a handicap. As a result, I’ve been treated as if I’m older than other writers my age. So I feel that if I don’t make an effort to make myself younger, I’ll get lost in the shuffle of time. But it’s not easy. When you write for many years, you never stop building your own house, and that house becomes the box that confines you. That “box” refers to the safe, easy method of writing that is all your own. Seeking out that box means creating the characteristics that are unique to “Kim Insuk, the writer.” But if you settle within that, it becomes difficult to keep pace with contemporary literature. My goal has not been to build up a method of fiction writing that can be summarized as “Kim Insuk’s style,” but to break out of the literary mold that I have created.       Shim: So perhaps that is why it is so difficult to group your body of work together into one consistent trend. You’ve demonstrated a keen eye for timely issues and matters that have been regarded as socially and culturally important. Your works from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s address the trends in each of those eras. Your fiction in the 1980s mostly dealt with the turbulence of the South Korean democratization movement or takes place against the backdrop of the labor movement, whereas in the 1990s, the setting of your work expanded to include the everyday spaces of personal lives and addressed the issues of female characters who are unable to break out of the mold of their everyday lives. Then in the 2000s, you broke down the theme of everyday life a little more and addressed it on a deeper level, while also cleaving a little more closely to social conditions. What are your thoughts on this?

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