Bae Suah
| Bae Suah | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1965 (age 50–51) |
| Occupation | Author, translator |
| Language | Korean, German |
| Nationality | South Korean |
| Ethnicity | Korean |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Bae Suah | |
| Hangul | 배수아 |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization | Bae Sua |
| McCune–Reischauer | Pae Sua |
Bae Suah (born 1965) is a South Korean author.[1]
Life
Bae graduated from Ewha Womans University with a degree in Chemistry. At the time of her debut in 1993, she was a government employee working behind the embarkation/disembarkation desk at Gimpo Airport in Incheon. Without formal instruction or guidance from a literary mentor, Bae wrote stories as a hobby.[2] But it wasn’t long before she left her stultifying job to become one of the most daringly unconventional writers to grace the Korean literary establishment in modern years.[3]
She made her debut as a writer with A Dark Room in 1988. Since 2001, Bae has lived in Germany.
Work
Bae has departed from the tradition of mainstream literature and created her own literary world based on a unique style and knack for psychological description.[4]
Bae made her debut as a writer with A Dark Room in 1988. Since then, she has published two anthologies of short fiction, including the novella Highway With Green Apples. She has also published novels, including Rhapsody in Blue.[5] Her work is regarded as unconventional in the extreme, including such unusual topics as men becoming victims of domestic violence by their female spouses (in “Sunday Sukiyaki Restaurant”).[6] characterized by tense-shifting and alterations in perspective. Her most recent works are nearly a-fictional, decrying characterization and plot.[7]
Bae is known for her use of abrupt shifts in tense and perspective, sensitive yet straightforward expressions, and seemingly non sequitur sentences to unsettle and distance her readers. Bae’s works offer neither the reassurance of moral conventions upheld, nor the consolation of adversities rendered meaningful. Most of her characters harbor traumatic memories from which they may never fully emerge, and their families, shown to be in various stages of disintegration, only add to the sense of loneliness and gloom dominating their lives. A conversation between friends shatters the idealized vision of love; verbal abuse constitutes a family interaction; and masochistic self-loathing fills internal monologues. The author’s own attitude toward the world and the characters she has created is sardonic at best.[8]
Works in Translation
• Nowhere to Be Found (aka Cheolsu) (AmazonCrossing, 2015), Translated into English by Sora Kim-Russell[9]
• Time in Gray (ASIA, 2013), Translated into English by Chang Chung-hwa and Andrew James Keast
• "Highway with Green Apples" in the edition of December 18, 2013 of "Day One", a digital literary journal by Amazon Publishing[10]
Works in Korean
• Highway with Green Apples (1995) • Rhapsody in Blue (1995) • Cheolsu (1998) • Ivana (2002) • Sunday Sukiyaki Restaurant (2003) • An Essayist's Desk (2003) • Solitary Scholar (2004)
Awards
• Dongseo Literary Prize, 2004 • Hankook Ilbo Literary Prize, 2003
References
- ↑ "배수아 " biographical PDF available at: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
- ↑ Korea Literature Translation Institute. Korean Writers: The Novelists p. 12
- ↑ "배수아 " datasheet available at: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
- ↑ Lee, Kyungjae (Vol.7 Spring 2010). "A Feast of Voices". LIST MAGAZINE, p. 50-2
- ↑ 12th International Women's Film Festival: http://www.wffis.or.kr/wffis_12th/01eng_introduction/02_award.php
- ↑ Kim Sung-hwan, Response to the New Century: Overview of Korean Novels in the 2000s. Korea Focus. http://www.koreafocus.or.kr/design2/layout/content_print.asp?group_id=103177
- ↑ Korea Literature Translation Institute. Korean Writers: The Novelists p. 13
- ↑ Korean Writers The Poets. Minumsa Press. 2005. p. 412.
- ↑ goodreads. "Nowhere to be Found". Retrieved February 27, 2015.
- ↑ The Korea Herald. "Author Bae's short story published on Amazon's 'Day One' Journal". Retrieved December 24, 2013.