Park Sang-ryung

Park Sang-ryung
Born (1940-08-06) August 6, 1940
Language Korean
Nationality South Korean
Ethnicity Korean
Citizenship South Korean
This is a Korean name; the family name is Park.
Park Sang-ryung
Hangul 박상륭
Hanja 朴常隆
Revised Romanization Bak Sang-nyung
McCune–Reischauer Pak Sang-nyung

Park Sang-ryung (born August 26, 1940) is a South Korean novelist and short story writer.[1] His most famous work is A Study of Death (1975), a novel which describes forty days leading to the death of an unnamed monk. He refers to his work as "Japsseul" (잡설) or a talk on everything because his writings all form a large metaphysical musing on the nature of humanity, transcendence, and death.[2] He has a reputation for being a difficult writer not only because of his exhaustive range of symbolism and allusion, but also because of his complex, experimental style.[3] As of 2012, he has published five novels, three short story collections, and one essay collection.

Life

Park Sang-ryung was born on 26 August 1940 in Jangsu, Jeollabuk-do. He was the youngest of eight surviving children; one of his elder brothers died when he was four. Because his mother was forty-five when he was born, he had a complex about her mortality.[4] This became more evident after his mother died when he was sixteen. He began making poems in middle school and only became a fiction writer when he could no longer sustain himself only by writing poetry. In 1961, he enrolled in Sorabol Art College to study creative writing. His debut was in 1963 when he published a short story called “Ageldama” in Sasangge. Its success enabled him to publish more stories in this journal. He transferred to Kyunghee University as a political science and international studies major in 1965, but he never attended it as he took a leave of absence until before he was hired by Sasangge in 1967. On the same year, he married Bae Yoo-ja who was working as a nurse since 1959.[5] In 1969, he, invited by his wife, immigrated to Vancouver, Canada. His three daughters were born during this period (Christina, Ondine, and Augustine). Meanwhile, he continued to write and publish in Korean. He moved back to Korea in 1998 with the intention of permanent settlement, but he continues to travel between Canada and Korea. He currently lives in Seoul.[6]

Work

Subject

Park considers his work as writing between novel and religious text in that it seeks to realize how a life can reach Moksha by physical and spiritual evolution.[7] He describes his work as a treatise on "Mwalm"(뫎) which is a compound word for body, speech, and mind.[8] This is an important theme for his work because it signifies the path from the universe of body through the universe of speech to arrive at the universe of mind. Because only humans are capable of belonging to these three universes (for animals lack speech, gods lack body, and nature lacks mind), they are the only ones who can escape from their cycle of life and death and thus bring an end to their suffering.[9] The passage through these universes is what constitutes of physical and spiritual evolution towards Moksha.

In order to discover what “Mwalm” is, his works venture on themes such as time, the relationship between gods and men, dreams, and nature. Nonetheless, Pravritti and Nivritti are the most predominant themes in them. Park defines Pravritti and Nivritti as progress and withdrawal, or more specifically an idea embodied in Samsara and a frame which embodies Nirvana.[10] In Pravritti or Rūpa, there is no end to time, and so there is no control to violent and lustful cycle of Samsara. On the other hand, Nivritti or Sunyata is an unchanging universe where liberation of soul occurs.[11]

Influence

His influences are comprehensive because his quest for a way of salvation has led him to recognize many philosophical, religious, mythical, and literary ideas that are relevant to it. His works are most influenced by Nietzsche, Jung, Laozi, Zhuangzi, I Ching, Bardo Thodol, Platform Sutra, Prajnaparamita, Diamond Sutra, Rig Veda, the Bible, Cheondoism, Jainism, Shamanism, Upanishads, the Gateless Gate, Greek mythology, Sumerian mythology, Indian mythology, Korean folklore (including Dangun), Shan Hai Jing, ancient Korean poetry, Yi Sang, Kim So-wol, Korean pansori, Camus, Hesse, T.S. Eliot, Dante, Dostoevsky, Jessie Weston’s work From Ritual to Romance, Mircea Eliade, and The Golden Bough.[12] His works acknowledge these influences by either inserting direct quotations (including their sources) or paraphrasing them in conversational expositions. Park also stated that his spiritual mentors are Milarepa, Nagarjuna, and Padmasambhava.[13]

Style

Park is known for writing long compound-complex sentences broken only by commas. These sentences range from six to ten lines, unusual trait in Korean literature. Also, characters in his works often speak a modified form of Jeolla dialect and play with grammar, especially closing endings.[14] Often unexplained Chinese characters, ancient Korean words, or obscure terms appear in his work. These stylistic features are interpreted as the author’s attempt to overcome the limitation of the Korean language.[15]

Bibliography

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "박상륭" biographical PDF available at the LTI Library or online at: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  2. ↑ http://weekly.hankooki.com/lpage/people/200907/wk20090708130156105610.htm (in Korean). Accessed 19 November 2012
  3. ↑ http://navercast.naver.com/contents.nhn?contents_id=6738 (in Korean). Accessed 19 November 2012
  4. ↑ Kim, Sa-in. A Deep Reading of the Novels of Park Sang-ryung. Moonji Publishing Co, 2001, p.41-3
  5. ↑ Kim, p.44-45
  6. ↑ http://ch.yes24.com/Article/View/14115?Scode=050_002 (in Korean). Accessed 21 November 2012
  7. ↑ Lee, Mon-jae. “Interview with Park Sang-ryung.” Munhakdongnae, Fall 1997.
  8. ↑ Chae, Gi-byung. Japsseol of Communication. Moonji Publishing Co., 2010, p.15-6
  9. ↑ Chae, p.62-4
  10. ↑ Park, Sang-ryung. Pyeongshim. Munhakdongnae Publishing, 1999, p.113.
  11. ↑ Chae, p.21-5
  12. ↑ Lim, Kuembok. Origins of Park Sangryoong’s Novels. Prunsasang, 2004, p. 553-7.
  13. ↑ Kim, p. 49
  14. ↑ Chae, p.157-9
  15. ↑ Chae, p.206-7
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