Name Jeong Do-sang Citizenship South Korean | Ethnicity Korean Nationality South Korean Role Writer | |
Born August 5, 1959 (age 65) ( 1959-08-05 ) | ||
Jeong Do-sang debuted as a writer in 1987 with the short story "Our Winter." He has written collections such as Chinguneun meolli gatsseodo (친구는 멀리 갔어도 Even though my friend went far), Spring at Silsangsa Temple (실상사), Moransijang yeoja (모란시장 여자 The Woman at the Moran Market), and Brier Rose (찔레꽃). He has also written the novels Faint Hope (누망), Nakta (낙타 The Camel), Eunhaengnamu sonyeon (은행나무 소년 The Ginkgo Tree Boy), as well as the children’s novel Dolgorae pachino (돌고래 파치노 Pachino the Dolphin). He has won the 17th Danjae Literary Award for Faint Hope, the 25th Yosan Literary Prize for Brier Rose, and the 7th Beautiful Writer’s Award.
Contents
Life
Jeong Do-sang was born on January 3, 1960 in Macheon-myeon, Hamyang-gun, Gyeongsanngnam-do, South Korea. His father died when he was six. He moved to Seoul in 1971 and pursued studies while he worked various jobs such as a street peddler selling chewing gum, a newspaper boy, and taking on manual labor. He enrolled at the Department of German Language and Literature at Chunbuk National University in 1981. He was imprisoned for his role in the Protest Against the Construction of the Peace Dam in 1986. In 1987, while serving his sentence in Jeonju Prison, he decided to begin writing. When he was released from prison, he worked at apartment construction sites while writing, and won the Chonnam National University’s May Literature Award for his short story Our Winter (우리들의 겨울). Afterwards, he actively pursued his career as a writer.
In 2005, Jeong Do-sang’s fifteen-year-old son committed suicide. His son’s suicide gave Jeong Do-sang great shock, and caused a literary change within him. These experiences were presumably deeply related to his later constant interest in the youth problem as well as his publication of young adult novels and children’s books.
Writing
As a Realist writer, Jeong Do-sang lays out themes based on life experiences in his writing. His early works have realistic insights into how the state uses its great authority to destroy the lives of individuals. Particularly, in Chinguneun meolli gatsseodo (친구는 멀리 갔어도 Even though my friend went far), he portrays how a soldier that accidentally kills a superior officer becomes involved in a fabricated defection to North Korea, as well as a reforestation project. Jeong also realistically portrays violence within the military, making it an early representative work that widely spread his name among readers.
In terms of works after the 2000s, Jeong Do-sang focused his literary interest on nomadism and the problem of refugees. Brier Rose (찔레꽃), a serialized novel, is about North Korean defectors and their journey, telling the process of escape and settlement. It realistically portrays the issue of division concerning South Korean society.
In the 2010 novel Nakta (낙타 The Camel), he portrays the inner side of a protagonist. The protagonist faces inner loneliness via a journey through the Gobi Desert with his son, who passed away with only a short note. Nakta (낙타 The Camel) portrays how such scars of the protagonist are healed through friendships made with many people he meets during his travel.
Works in Translation
Works in Korean
Short Story Collections
Novels
Children’s Novels