Yun Heung-gil

Who is Yun Heung-gil?

Yun Heung-gil is a South Korean novelist known for his treatment of conflicts between the individual and society. He received his degree in Korean literature from Wongwang University in 1973. In 1977 he won the Korean Literature Writers Award.

Yun's career can be divided into three phases. In the first phase, with often partly autobiographical works written during the early 1970s, Yun uses a young male narrator to depict a gloomy existence in which the family is threatened by internal or external troubles. Works of these periods include The Rainy Spell and The Lamb.

In later phase, his novels shifted focus to depict life under the authoritarian Park Chunghee regime, in which the primary tensions are between personal conscience and material well-being, which was proposed by Park Chunghee. In 1977, he entered into the third stage with the publication of The Man Left with Nine Pairs of Shoes, in which the characters actively resist the forces oppressing them.

Yun currently works as a professor of Creative Writing at Hanseo University, Seosan.