Lee Seong-bok

Lee Seong-bok
Hangeul	이성복
Hanja	李 晟 馥
Revised Romanization	I Seong-bok
McCune- Reischauer	I Sŏng-pok
See also : Korean name

LEE Seong-Bok (* 4. June 1952 in the town of Sangju the province of North Kyŏngsang ) is a South Korean poet .

Life

Lee Seong-bok attended elementary school in his native Sangju until the fifth grade before he switched to a school in Seoul at his own request.

During his high school days he was already editing a private anthology . In 1971, after graduating from Seoul High School, Lee Seong-bok enrolled in the Philosophy Faculty of Seoul National University . There he joined a literature group in his sophomore year and made friends with critics and authors such as Kim Hyeon and Yi In-seong .

During his military service in the Navy from 1973, he read important works of literature and took part in numerous literary competitions for young authors. After his discharge from military service, Lee Seong-bok began studying French literature, met poets such as Hwang Ji-u, and organized picture exhibitions of poetry on campus . In 1977 Lee Seong-bok, on the recommendation of the then professor of French literature and influential literary critic Kim Hyeon, published the prostitute's quarter and other poems in the literary magazine "Literatur und Verstand" (Munhak-kwa chisŏng) and made a name for himself as a poet.

In 1979 he took up a master’s degree. In 1980, in the turmoil of the Kwangju uprising , he married Kim Hye-ran. In the same year the publication of two important literary magazines "Literature and Understanding" and "Literary Creation and Criticism" (Changjak-kwa pip'yŏng) was forced to stop by the new military government. In October Lee Seong-bok's first volume of poetry, When the stone awakens from its sluggish slumber, was published, with which he won the 1982 Kim Su-yŏng Literature Prize. In the same year he took up a position as a lecturer at Keimyung University in Taegu , where he taught creative writing . A study visit to France from 1984 to 1985 made him rethink his western orientation, which was inspired by Franz Kafka and Charles Baudelaire . After his return he began to read the East Asian classics. In 1986 Lee Seong-bok's second volume of poetry Südmeer Seidenberg was published .

In 1990 he was appointed assistant professor, obtained his doctorate and was awarded the Sowŏl literature prize. In the same year the third volume of poems , The End of That Summer , was published. In 1991 the Y Mittelnam Foundation gave him the opportunity to study for another year in Paris, and a time began in which Lee Seong-bok turned away from Confucianism and rediscovered Western literature under the influence of Taoism and Buddhism . After his return in 1992 he published the studies on the poetics of Gérard de Nervals based on his doctoral thesis , and the following year he published his fourth volume of poetry, Memory of the Holly . Ten years later, two more editions of poems appeared in quick succession, entitled Ah, Things Without a Mouth and Wavy Trace on the Forehead of the Moon.

Work

Volumes of poetry

• 뒹구는 돌 은 언제 잠 깨는가 ( When does the stone awaken from its sluggish slumber ) Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, Seoul 1980.
• 남해 금산 ( South Sea Silk Mountain ) Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, Seoul 1986.
• 그 여름 의 끝 ( The End of That Summer ) Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, Seoul 1990.
• 호랑 가시 나무 의 기억 ( Memory of the Holly ) Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, Seoul 1993.
• 아, 입 이 없는 것들 ( Ah, you things without a mouth ) Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, Seoul 2003.
• 달 의 이마 에는 물결 무늬 자국 ( Wavy trace on the forehead of the moon ) Yŏllimwon, Seoul 2003.

Translations

German

• How different are the nights. From the Korean by Kang Yeo-Kyu and Uwe Kolbe. Wallstein Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0868-8 .

English

• I heard life calling me; poems of Yi Song-Bok Cornell East Asia Series, 2010, ISBN 978-1933947150

French

• Ah, les choses sans bouche. Circé, 2010, ISBN 978-2-84242-276-9 .

Awards

• 2007 - 제 53 회 현대 문학상 ( Prize for Contemporary Literature )
• 2004 - 제 12 회 대산 문학상 ( Taesan Literature Prize )
• 1990 - 소월 문학상 ( Sowŏl Literature Prize )
• 1982 - 김수영 문학상 ( Kim Su-yŏng Literature Prize )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Korean Literature Authors Name Authority Database: 이성복 ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on January 26, 2014 (English) 
2. ↑ LTI Korea: Author Database: Lee Seong-bok  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on July 23, 2013.  
3. ^ Marlboro Review: Lee Seong-Bok's poems were published in Issue 12 of the Marlboro Review. accessed on July 23, 2013.
4. ↑ LTI Korea: 문인 DB: Lee Seong-bok ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 23, 2013 (Korean). 

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Lee is the family name here, Seong-bok is the first name.