Chung So-sung

The novella Atene ganeun bae (아테네 가는 배 The Ship Bound for Athens), which won the 17th Dongin Literary Award, is a unique and distinguished work of fiction that is written about the historical reality of the division of Korea in the theme of the mystification and the sense of fate around pain. It compares the division of Korea to Greek mythology.

Chung published 5 short story collections including Tteugeo-un gang (뜨거운 강 The Hot River), and 14 novels including Yeojaui seong (여자의 성 The Sex of Women), Daedongyeojido (대동여지도 Daedongyeojido, 5 Volumes), Taeyangin (태양인 The Sun People, 2 Volumes), Du anae (두 아내 Two Wives), and Seolhyang (설향). He strived to depict life's experiences, and he showed a style of trying to approach the meaning of life in history through characters in his works. In the same year he was awarded the Dongin Literary Award, he also won the Yun Dongju Literature Award. In recognition of his career, he was awarded the Bonghwa Artist Award in 2015 from his hometown Bonghwa.

Particularly, this work was selected by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, a government funded organization, as the only work to be translated into French in 1999. It was translated by Jean-Paul Desgoutte from Paris 8 University and his wife, both academics. This has led to the recognition of the work's quality.

Chung So-sung (11 February 1944 – 24 October 2020) was a writer from South Korea.

Chung So-sung was born in Bonghwa, Gyeongsangbuk-do, in 1944. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in French literature from Seoul National University. He then received his doctorate in French literature from the University of Grenoble III in France. From 1985 until 2009 he was the French literature professor at Dankook University’s college of liberal arts. In 1977, when Chung was the French literature professor at Chonnam University’s college of education, he made his literary debut with the publication of his story “Jilju” (질주 Rush) in Hyundae Munhak. Toward the end of his study abroad in France, he published the novel Cheonnyeoneul naerineun nun (천년을 내리는 눈 The Snow of Thousand Years) in 1983. After he published Atene ganeun bae (아테네 가는 배 The Ship Bound for Athens) in early 1985, he won the Dongin Literary Award. Hwang Sun-won, who was the judge for the award, has said the following of the story: “It is a great harvest to have gotten this work, which allowed us to profoundly reaffirm the pain of our division to the world.”