Ji Eun Baek Wins 2025 Young Critics Award

Award-Winning Work: "Live as You Wish: The Objecthood of Affect"

The Korean Literary Critics Association has selected Ji Eun Baek as the recipient of the 26th Young Critics Award in 2025. The winning work is "Live as You Wish: The Objecthood of Affect" ("Jaeumgwa Moeum" - Summer 2024 issue).

Ji Eun Baek, critic. Korean Literary Critics Association

Ji Eun Baek began her career as a literary critic in 2007 by publishing a critique in "Literature of the World." Through collections of critical essays such as "From the Reader's Perspective" and "Steps Across," she has devoted herself to critical writing that explores the meaning of literature in our era.

The award-winning critique, "Live as You Wish," analyzes the uniqueness of Hwa Jin Kim's short story collection "About Naju." It interprets the world depicted in the work as one where countless "minds" are interconnected and regulated, and overlays the concept of "mind"?which is both a social construct and a form of personal autonomy?onto the network of relationships among the characters.

The association commented, "Ji Eun Baek's critical perspective is noteworthy in that it offers a new viewpoint on the constructive principles of fiction, and advances the idea of autonomy through reading fiction in a reality where social oppression is internalized."

The 26th Young Critics Award ceremony will be held at 5:00 p.m. on the 26th at Room 132 of the College of Liberal Arts (West Building), Korea University.

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