Lee Sung-U

Lee Sung-U
Hangeul	이승우
Revised Romanization	I Seung-u
McCune- Reischauer	Yi Sŭng-u
See also : Korean name

Lee Sung-U (born February 21, 1959 in Changhŭng , Chŏllanam-do ) is a South Korean writer .

Life

Lee Sung-U was born in a small coastal town in South Chŏlla Province . After finishing elementary school, he attended middle school for a year and lived with an uncle, separated from his family. When his mother decided that the family should live together again, he moved to Seoul and attended Chung-Ang University's middle and high school. He led an unsettled life, living in many different places with his older brother and for a time with relatives.

He decided to study theology and after an examination was accepted as a scholarship holder at the Seoul Theological College. During this time he immersed himself in the poems of Oh Gyu-won and Chong Hyon-jong and in the novels of Yi Chong-jun and Yun Heung-gil . The works of Yi Chong-jun in particular served him as a model.

When he was drafted for military service, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1981. Instead of becoming a soldier, he went to Ch'rwon in Kangwon Province to take a cure , where his mother owned a business. In December of the same year, the novel Portrait of the Erysichthon was awarded the Hankuk Literature Prize for young writers. After his writing debut, he worked for the Protestant magazine "World of Faith" (Sinang segye) and rented a room in the Kaebong workers' district in Seoul . His writing, studying theology and life collided strongly with each other, which meant that after two semesters he gave up his master's degree at the university.

From 1987 he finally devoted himself to writing professionally.

Since 2001 he has been teaching literature at Chosun University .

Work

Korean

stories

• 구평 목 씨 의 바퀴벌레 ( Mr. Ku P'yŏngmok's cockroach ) Seoul: Munhak sasangsa 1987
• 日 蝕 에 대하여 ( About the Solar Eclipse ) Seoul: Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa 1989
• 세상 밖으로 ( From the World ) Seoul: Koryŏwon 1991
• 미궁 에 대한 추측 ( guesswork about the labyrinth ) Seoul: Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa 1994
• 목련 공원 ( Magnolia Park) Seoul: Munidang 1998
• 사람들 은 자기 집 에 무엇이 있는지도 모른다 ( People don't know what's in their house ) Seoul: Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa 2001
• 나는 아주 오래 살 것이다 ( I will live a very long time ) Seoul: Munidang 2002
• 심인 광고 ( Missing Person Report ) Seoul: Munidang 2005

Novels

• 에리 직톤 의 초상 ( Portrait of Erysichthon ) Seoul: Sallim 1990
• 가시 나무 그늘 ( shadow of thorns ) Seoul: JoongAng Ilbo 1991
• 따뜻한 비 ( Warm Rain ) Seoul: Ch'aengnamu 1991
• 황금 가면 ( Golden Mask ) Seoul: Koryŏwon 1992
• 생 의 이면 ( The Back Side of Life ) Seoul: Munidang 1992
• 내 안에 또 누가 있나 ( Who else is inside me? ) Seoul: Koryŏwon 1995
• 사랑 의 전설 ( The Legend of Love ) Seoul: Munidang 1996
• 태초 에 유혹 이 있었다 ( In the beginning was temptation ) Seoul: Munidang 1998
• 식물 들의 사생활 ( The hidden life of plants ) Seoul: Munhakdogne 2000

Translations

German

• The back of life Bad Honnef: Horlemann 1996
• Conjectures about the Bielefeld labyrinth : Pendragon 2005
• The hidden life of plants . Novel. Translated from the Korean by Ki Hyang Lee. Zurich: Unionsverlag 2014

English

• The Reverse Side of Life Peter Owen 2005

French

• L'envers de la vie Paris: Zulma 2000
• La vie rêvée des plantes Gallimard 2009
• Le Vieux Journal SERGE SAFRAN 2013

Spanish

• La Vida Secreta de las Plantas Ediciones del Ermitaño 2009

Awards

• 2010 - Hwang Sun-wŏn Literature Prize
• 2007 - Contemporary Literature Prize in the Novel category
• 2003 - Lee Hyo-sŏk Literature Prize
• 2002 - Tongsŏ Literature Prize
• 1993 - Taesan Literature Prize in the novels category
• 1981 - Korean Literature Prize for Young Authors

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Naver: People: 이승우 , accessed July 31, 2013 (Korean).
2. ↑ LTI Korea: Author Database: Lee Seung-u ( Memento of the original dated November 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 July 25, 2013. 
3. ↑ LTI Korea: 문인 DB: Lee Seung-u ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2013 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 25, 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, Sung-U is the first name.