Yi Gwangsu (Korean: 이광수; 1892–1950) was a Korean writer and independence and nationalist activist.[1] His pen names were Chunwon and Goju. Yi is best known for his novel Mujeong (Heartless), sometimes described as the first Korean novel.[2] Yi Gwangsu was born Yi Bogyeong on February 1, 1892.[3] [4]

Yi Gwangsu
Native name	이광수; 리광수
Born	(1892-02-01)February 1, 1892 Gwangdong-ri, Galjitong, Jeongju-gun, Pyeongan-do, Korean Empire (Currently Chongju, North Pyongan Province, North Korea)
Died	October 25, 1950(1950-10-25) (aged 58)
Occupation	Novelist
Language	Korean
Nationality	South Korean
Spouse	Heo Young-sook
Children	5
Korean name
Hangul	이광수
Hanja	李光洙
Revised Romanization	I Gwangsu
McCune–Reischauer	I Kwangsu

Life

Yi Gwangsu was born in 1892 in Jeongju. He was orphaned at about age 10 and grew up with Donghak believers. In 1904, around the time of the Donghak Peasant Revolution, he moved to Seoul in order to avoid the authorities. In 1905 he went to Japan for his education. Upon returning to Korea in 1913, he taught at Osan School in Jeongju. He later moved back to Tokyo and became one of the leaders of the anti-colonial student movement.

In 1919 he moved to Shanghai and served in the Korean Provisional Government and became president of The Independent, a newspaper in Shanghai. Yi returned to Korea in 1921 and founded the Alliance for Self-Improvement, established on principles of enlightenment and self-help. From 1923 to 1934 Yi pursued a career in journalism working for several newspapers, including two that survive today, the Dong-a Ilbo and the Chosun Ilbo.

After the war, the Special Committee for the Investigation of Anti-nationalist Activities found Yi guilty of collaboration. In 1950 Yi was captured by the North Korean army and died in Manpo on October 25, most likely of tuberculosis.[3]

Family

Yi had two younger sisters, Lee Ae-Kyung (리애경) and Lee Ae-Ran (리애란). Yi married twice, first to Heo Young-sook (백혜순), then to Baek Hye-soon (백혜순). He had three sons, Lee Jin-keun (리진근), Lee Pong-keun (리봉근), and Lee Young-keun (리영근); and two daughters, Chung-Nan Lee Kim (리정란) and Chung-Wha Lee Iyenger (리정화).

Work

Yi was a fiction writer and essayist. His essays originally focused on the need for national consciousness.[5] His fiction was among the first modern fiction in Korea and he is most famous for his novel, Mujeong (The Heartless). Mujeong was a description of the crossroads at which Korea found itself, stranded between tradition and modernity and undergoing conflict between social realities and traditional ideals.[6] His career can be split into thirds. The first period (that of Mujeong), from 1910-19 featured a strong attack on Korea's traditional society and the belief that Korea should adopt a more modern ("Western") worldview.[3] From the early 1920s to the 1930s, Yi transformed into a dedicated nationalist and published a controversial essay, "On the Remaking of National Consciousness", which advocated a moral overhaul of Korea and blamed Koreans for being defeatist.[3] The third period, from the 1930s on, coincided with Yi's conversion to Buddhism, and his work consequently became noticeably Buddhist in tone. This was also the period in which, as noted above, Yi became a Japanese collaborator.

Yi's professional judgment could be as fickle as his politics. In one famous case he befriended then abandoned the fellow writer Kim Myeong-sun, allegedly because his own beliefs about modernism had shifted.[7] Yi has also been considered one of the pioneers of queer literature in Korea with the publishing of Is it Love (Ai ka) in 1909, when Yi was 17.[8]

Works (Partial)

• Is It Love (사랑인가 愛か), 1909
• Young Sacrifice (어린 희생)
• Mujeong (Heartless) (무정), 1917
• Reincarnation (재생)
• A Boy's Sorrow (소년의 비애)
• Pioneer (개척자)
• Nameless (무명)
• Soil (흙), 1932
• Crown Prince Maui (마의태자 麻衣太子), 1928
• Danjong Aesa (단종애사 端宗哀史), 1929
• Oil Well (유정 油井)
• Love (사랑), 1938
• Sejo of Joseon (세조대왕)
• Wife of the Revolutionary (혁명가의 아내)
• Aeyog-ui Pian (애욕의 피안)
• Grandmother (할멈)
• Kashil (가실 嘉實)
• My Confession (나의 고백)
• Ambassador Wonhyo (원효대사)
• Death of Yichadon (이차돈의 죽음)
• Biography of Yi Sun-sin (전기 이순신)
• Biography of Ahn Changho (전기 안창호)
• Dosan, Ahn Changho (도산, 안창호)
• Stone Pillow (돌베개)

Translated works in English

• Mujŏng, translated by Ann Sung-Hi Lee (Cornell University: Cornell East Asia Series, 2005) ISBN 978-1-885-44537-7
• The Soil, translated by Sun-Ae Hwang and Horace Jeffrey Hodges (Dalkey Archive Press, 2013) ISBN 978-1-564-78911-2
• Kashil and Best Essays by Yi Kwang-su, translated by Chung-Nan Lee Kim (Archway Publishing, 2014) ISBN 978-1-480-81363-2

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yi Kwang-su.

• Yi Gwang-su: Pro-Japanese? (in English)
• Queering Korean Literature: Author and Activist Yi Gwang-su (in English)
• 북한, 6·25 납북인사 묘역 첫 공개 조선일보 2005.07.26
• 춘원 이광수의 `무정 영문판 출판 조선일보 2005.10.23
• 춘원 이광수는 어떻게 친일로 변절했나 오마이뉴스 2005.09.18
• [책마을] 친일과 애국 사이… 춘원의 두얼굴 조선일보 2000.01.10

На других языках

[ru] Ли Гвансу