Novelist Nam Jeong-hyun, Known for 'Bunji', Passes Away at 87

Photo by Yonhap News Agency

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Novelist Nam Jeong-hyun (photo), who served as an advisor to the Korean Writers' Association (the predecessor of the Korean Writers' Association), passed away on the 21st at the age of 87.

He was born in 1933 in Dangjin, Chungnam, and graduated from Daejeon Normal High School. He debuted in 1958 with "Free Literature".

He faced censorship with his representative work "Bunji" published in 1965. "Bunji" is a novel that satirically reveals the view that Korea was effectively colonized by foreign powers. In May of the same year, this novel was published in "Choguk Tongil," the official magazine of the Workers' Party of Korea in North Korea, and the public security authorities arrested him on the grounds that he distorted the reality of the Republic of Korea and violated the Anti-Communism Law. He was formally indicted in 1966 and sentenced to prison, but was released on probation the following year. During this process, free legal defense by lawyers and rescue testimonies from fellow writers such as Ahn Su-gil and Lee Eo-ryeong attracted attention.

In 1974, he was also involved in the Mincheonghakryeon incident and the literary spy group case, and was detained for nearly five months on charges of violating Emergency Measure No. 1, but was released on a suspended indictment.

He continued to be active as a key member of the Writers' Association, engaging in anti-American activities such as opposing the visit of the U.S. president and opposing the dispatch of troops to Iraq.

Besides "Bunji," in representative works such as "What Are You?" and "Teacher Heo Heo," he exposed political realities and social contradictions through narratives employing exaggeration, irony, allegory and metaphor, satire, and fantasy techniques.

He received the 6th Dong-in Literary Award in 1961. His works include the short story collections "What Are You?" (1965), "Inheritance Under the Chimney" (1961), "Three Months with Juni" (1977), and the novel "The Sound of Love".

In 2002, the National Institute of Korean Studies published the "Complete Works of Nam Jeong-hyun" (3 volumes), and in 2004, Silcheon Munhak published the "Selected Representative Novels of Nam Jeong-hyun." Regarding the publication of the anthology, he said in the author's note, "Born in the Japanese era, I spent my foolish childhood foolishly, and inevitably lived through the divided era, or rather the American era," adding, "I always carried a desperate wish to live in our era, not the American era, and blindly embarked on the so-called path of writing."

The Korean Novelists Association announced that the funeral will be held as a writers' funeral. Survived by his son Don-hee and daughter Jin-hee. The funeral hall is at Seoul National University Hospital in Hyehwa-dong, and the funeral procession will be on the 23rd.

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