Symposium Highlighting 11 Literary Figures Including Jo Ji-hoon and Han Ha-woon on Their 100th Birth Anniversary

On the 18th, at Kyobo Life Building 23rd floor Kyobo Convention Hall

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] The Daesan Cultural Foundation and the Korean Writers' Association are hosting the '2020 Centennial Literary Festival for Writers Born 100 Years Ago.'

The Centennial Literary Festival for Writers Born 100 Years Ago began in 2001 and has annually reexamined Korean writers who have reached their 100th birth anniversary. This year's featured writers, born in 1920, include 11 individuals: Kwak Ha-shin, Kim Sang-ok, Kim Jun-seong, Kim Tae-gil, Kim Hyung-seok, Ahn Byung-wook, Lee Dong-ju, Lee Beom-seon, Cho Yeon-hyun, Cho Ji-hoon, and Han Ha-un. The festival will start with a symposium on the 18th, followed by a Literary Night and various side events on the 19th.

Writers born in 1920 generally began their literary activities in the late 1930s, during their late teens. This was a period when the Japanese colonial government fully enforced wartime mobilization and banned the use of the Korean language in schools at all levels. Writers born in 1920 strove to preserve the Korean language and script and sought to rediscover the unique traditions of the Korean people. In the post-liberation period, while engaging in factional confrontations, they also represented the voices of women and minorities. Additionally, they experienced the tragedies of history firsthand and explored the inner life of humans amid the devastation following the war. Accordingly, this year’s festival theme was set as 'Exploring Humanity, Traversing Tradition and Existence.'

Kim Sang-ok received his first recommendation from the literary magazine Munjang in 1938 and debuted in the literary world three years later in 1941 through the Dong-A Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest. Kwak Ha-shin won the Dong-A Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest in 1938, and Cho Ji-hoon began his activities in 1939 with a recommendation from Munjang. Cho Yeon-hyun published works through the literary magazines A and Shirim in 1937 and 1938 respectively, and Lee Dong-ju published poetry in Jogwang in 1940. Those who debuted in the literary world between 1938 and 1945, when the Japanese banned the use of Korean, were not part of the 'student soldier generation' under colonial conscription policies but belonged to the 'Korean Language Defense Resistance Generation' that preserved the spirit of the nation.

Jo Ji-hoon [Photo by Daesan Foundation]

Han Ha-un began his literary activities by publishing poetry in Sincheonji in 1949, Kim Jun-seong appeared in the literary magazine Hyopdong during the Korean War in 1952, and Lee Beom-seon emerged in the postwar literary scene in 1955. Philosophers Kim Hyung-seok, Ahn Byung-wook, and Kim Tae-gil were active essayists during the 1960s, an era known as the age of essays.

The symposium was originally scheduled for May 7 but was postponed once due to the spread of COVID-19. The symposium on the 18th will be held at the Kyobo Life Building’s 23rd-floor Kyobo Convention Hall, accommodating about 350 people, with fewer than 30 pre-registered attendees per session, along with bereaved families, presenters, discussants, and moderators. The symposium will be live-streamed on YouTube. Thus, this year’s festival will proceed simultaneously in both face-to-face and non-face-to-face formats. Detailed information, including pre-registration methods, can be found on the Daesan Cultural Foundation’s website.

The 'Literary Night' event on the 19th at 7 p.m. will be held at the Gyeongui Line Book Street’s Gonggan Sanchaek, featuring readings of works by the featured writers. Young poets such as Kwon Min-kyung, Kim Su-on, Kim Ho-sung, Song Ji-hyun, and Yang Soon-mo will read the works of their senior writers, accompanied by diverse performances including piano music. The event is sponsored by Kyobo Book Centre. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, only a small number of pre-registered attendees will be admitted, and the event will also be live-streamed on YouTube.

Additionally, to facilitate more focused discussions on the featured writers, a 'Centennial Poets and Poetry Critics Commemorative Academic Conference' will be co-hosted with the Korean Society of Poetics on the 27th at Hanyang University. This conference will reexamine and comprehensively organize the literary worlds of poets Kim Sang-ok, Lee Dong-ju, Cho Ji-hoon, Han Ha-un, and critic Cho Yeon-hyun, providing an opportunity to share with the public.

Furthermore, writings titled 'My Father,' in which the bereaved families of Kim Sang-ok, Lee Dong-ju, Cho Yeon-hyun, and Cho Ji-hoon recall the writers as fathers, were featured in the summer 2020 issue of the quarterly magazine Daesan Munhwa. Also, a collection of symposium papers, discussion papers, and chronologies of the writers and their works will be published as the Centennial Literary Festival Proceedings.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.