Lee Seung-u | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1959-02-21)21 February 1959 (age 66) Jangheung County,South Jeolla Province,South Korea |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | South Korean |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 이승우 |
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | I Seungu |
| McCune–Reischauer | Yi Sŭngu |
Lee Seung-u (Korean: 이승우, born 21 February 1959) is a South Korean writer.[1]
Lee Seung-u was born in Jangheung, Jeollanam-do in 1959.[2] Lee Seung-u graduated fromSeoul Theological University and studied atYonsei University Graduate School of Theology.[3] One of the outstanding writers to have emerged in South Korea after the political repression of the 1980s,[4] he is todayprofessor of Korean Literature atChosun University.[2]
Lee's literary career started with his novelA Portrait of Erysichton, which was triggered by his shock at the assassination attempt of Pope Paul II in 1981. This work received the New Writers Award fromKorean Literature Monthly.[5] In 1993 Lee'sThe Reverse Side of Life was awarded the 1st Daesan Literary Award[3] and he has also received he East West Literature Prize forI Will Live Long,[4] the Contemporary Literature Award for Fiction and the Hwang Sun-won Literary Award.[2] In 2021, he wonYi Sang Literary Award, one of the most prestigious Korean literary awardsArchived 2021-10-25 at hankookilbo.com(Error: unknown archive URL).
InPortrait of Erysichton,In the Shadow of Thorny Bushes, andThe Reverse Side of Life, Lee Seung-u focuses on the notion of Christian redemption and how it intersects with human life, demonstrating how tension between heaven and earth are revealed in quotidian life.[6] Other works, includingA Conjecture Regarding Labyrinth andTo the Outside of the World face up to disillusionment pursuant to the corruption and devaluation of language.[3]
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, has a deep affection for Korean literature. During his year-long stay in Korea as a visiting professor atEwha Womans University inSeoul, he held book readings with Korean authors on several occasions. At the press conference after theNobel Prize Award Ceremony, he stated that “Korean literature is quite worthy of theNobel Literature Prize,” and that “Personally, I would say that Lee Seung-u is one of the likely Korean candidates for the prize.”[7]
Among Lee Seung-u's works, only full-length novels have been translated into English and French, although he has published a great number of short story collections in the past three decades, due in part to the climate of the Korean literary world in which a writer's capacity is evaluated mostly through short stories published in literary journals.[7]
