Lee Mun-ku

Nostalgia for a place and way of life that no longer exist also lies at the heart of The Ballad of Kalmori (Gwanchon supil, 1977). The volume contains retrospective accounts of scenes and persons from the author's childhood in Gwanchon Village. Lee provides sketches of a vanishing ethos connected with the Korean countryside a way of life based on hospitality, reciprocity, and fundamental reverence for the living. For these virtues, critics agree that The Ballad of Kalmori is a text worthy of being called the highest literary tribute to the lost world of traditional Korea.

The subject of Lee's literary explorations is agrarian Korean society in transition. From very early on in his career, Lee revealed his interest in the harsh reality of Korean farming and fishing villages and the lives of rural people alienated by industrialization. Stories like “This World of Woe” (Yi pungjin sesangeul) and “The Cow” (Amso) offer, for example, realistic slices of contemporary rural life and an insider's look at the humble dreams and daily frustrations of farmers in these villages. The Dream of Everlasting Sorrow (Janghanmong, 1972), on the other hand, focuses on the urban poor. Countryfolk dislocated in the process of industrialization and forced to work as day laborers, the characters are now far away from the land of their ancestral home. An undercurrent of longing flows through the text.

While he was a student in the Creative Writing Department at Sorabol College of Arts, his talent was recognized by the influential fiction writer Kim Dongri, and Lee Mungu published his first stories, “Dagalla Monument” (Dagalla bulmangbi, 1965) and “White Waves” (Baekgyeol, 1966), in Contemporary Literature (Hyundae Munhak) at his recommendation. After graduating from college, Lee Mungu worked for several literary journals, including Literature Monthly (Wolgan munhak), Korean Literature (Hanguk munhak), and Literature of Praxis (Silcheon munhak), and joined the Association of Writers for Literature of Freedom and Practice (Jayu silcheon munin hyeobuihoe).