Kim Tong-ni
| Kim Tong-ni | |
|---|---|
| Born | 김시종 December 21, 1913 |
| Died | June 17, 1995 |
| Language | Korean |
| Nationality | Korean |
| Ethnicity | Korean |
| Citizenship | South Korean |
| Pen name | |
| Hangul | 김동리 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 金東里 |
| Revised Romanization | Gim Dongni |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kim Tongni |
| Actual name | |
| Hangul | 김시종 |
| Hanja | 始鐘 |
| Revised Romanization | Si Jong |
| McCune–Reischauer | Si Chong |
Kim Tong-ni (The romanization preferred by the author according to LTI Korea) was a Korean writer.
Kim Tong-ni (real name: Kim Sijong) was born on December 21, 1913, in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea. Kim attended Gyeseong Middle School in Daegu before transferring to Kyungshin Middle School in Seoul. After family circumstances forced him to drop out, he devoted himself to reading in place of regular coursework. He read a tremendous number of books, including philosophy, world literature and Eastern classics. In fact, Kim’s eldest brother Kim Beom-bu, who was a scholar of Chinese classics and a philosopher, had great influence on his extensive reading and his prospects of becoming a writer of Korean literature.
Kim was so poor from his childhood that hunger was almost part of his life. He once wrote that sometimes if there was any liquor remaining in the bowl after his father drank from it, he would gulp down even that leftover liquor to relieve his hunger. In 1928, he dropped out of school in order to devote himself to writing. He started his literary career by publishing poems in various newspapers at the age of 16. He made a name for himself in the Korean literary world with his short stories. Over the years he received numerous literary awards. Kim Dongri debuted as a poet in 1934 with the publication of the poem "White Heron" (Baengno) in the Chosun Ilbo and emerged as a fiction writer the next year when his story "A Descendant of Hwarang" (Hwarangui huye) was published in the JoongAng Ilbo.
He was also active in a number of organizations such as The Association of Young Korean Writers (Hanguk cheongnyeon munhakga hyeophoe), The Korea Academy of Arts (Daehanminguk yesurwon), and the Korean Writers' Association (Hanguk munin hyeophoe).
Kim was married to the writer Son So-hui (1917-1987). Kim died on June 17, 1995.
Kim’s work deals with traditional and native Korean themes from a 20th-century perspective . As a right-wing writer and advocate of “pure literature,” Kim Dongri produced a series of critical essays opposing ideological literature, including The True Meaning of Pure Literature (Sunsu munhagui jinui, 1946) and The Theory of National Literature (Minjok munhangnon, 1948).
Kim Dong-ni’s literary world, characterized by a mixture of traditional mysticism and humanist realism, investigated the idea of fate and man’s place in the universe through the spiritual world of Korean tradition as it collided with foreign culture. His early works such as "The Portrait of Shaman" (Munyeodo, 1936), "The Post Horse Curse" (Yeongma), and "The Legend of Yellow Earth" (Hwangtogi) draw heavily on elements of traditional myth to explore the relations between shamanism and Confucianism, Christianity and Buddhism, fatalism and naturalism. "The Post Horse Curse" portrays a man’s rebellion against and eventual acceptance of his fate as a wanderer; "The Portrait of Shaman," which was later expanded into a full-length novel entitled Eulhwa, depicts a conflict between a shaman mother and a Christian son. In the mother’s suicide, the narrative predicts the decline of shamanism and ascendancy of newly imported Christianity.
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