A Distinctive Feature of Yom Sansop’s Work

Shakhnoza Sunnatovna Muslimova

Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Keywords: Politics, and Ideology, Various Literary Magazines, Critical Articles, Arbitrariness, Violence, Colonial,

Letter-Monologue.

Abstract: Yom Sansop, a Korean writer who penned under the pseudonym Hwenbo, is one of the most famous

representatives of Korean prose writing of the 20th century. His creative heritage is very fruitful: he is the

author of 27 novels and short stories, a number of short stories, literary-critical articles and journalistic essays.

1 INTRODUCTION

During the Japanese colonial period in Korea in the

first half of the 20th century, young Koreans had the

opportunity to study abroad, especially in Japan.

Among these young people, Yom Sansop left for

Japan at the age of 15. He attended Aoyama College

for a while and then graduated from Daichi School.

In 1917, he entered the Faculty of Humanities at Keyo

University.

Active young people of his time, as a patriot, the

future writer took part in the movements for

independence. However the movement did not have

the expected effect, and Yom Sansop was sentenced

to prison for some time along with other young

people. The writer, who was released from prison,

worked as an ordinary worker in the editorial office

of the Korean-language “Ijod” magazine. Yom

Sansop, who returned to his homeland in 1920,

worked as a commentator in “East Asia News”.

Writers who entered the literary field in the early

20s of the 20th century were, firstly, journalists, and

secondly, people who worked as publishers, editors

and commentators in some press publishing houses.

By this time, various literary magazines were

published in Korea one after the other, and supporters

of one or another direction gathered around it.

All members of these associations were engaged

in translation from European, in particular, French

and English languages. According to N. I. Konrad,

European literature often entered Eastern countries in

the original, where the efforts of some writers played

a special role. The formation that took place in

Japanese literary processes in the 19th and 20th

https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3881-5677

centuries was also observed in modern Korean

literature. The authors of the period were required to

have a good knowledge of Western literature,

particularly the literature of one of the European

nations.

In the 20s, Korean creative people, who got

acquainted with the literature of European nations,

tried to fulfill the purposeful tasks of mastering the

new creative style and putting it into practice.

Translations from the original became primarily a

creative weapon of the writer.

It is known that during this period, various literary

movements were active in Korea. Yom Sanson joined

the “Ruins” stream. On the pages of the magazine, the

writer’s decadent poems and critical articles, like

other members of it, were published. Due to the

controversy with the most famous writer of his time,

Kim Donin, Yom Sansop, whose work has not found

its reader until now, managed to gain the attention of

others in literary circles.

2 THE MAIN RESULTS AND

FINDINGS

Yom Sansop, who did not have enough life

experience, but was able to give a critical opinion on

the articles and works published in some magazine

pages, actually gave impetus to the development of

literary criticism in Korea - Kuronov D. (2004).

In the 1920s, when the March Movement was

suppressed and Japanese colonialism was on the rise,

there were some obstacles in literary criticism to give

Muslimova, S.

A Distinctive Feature of Yom Sansop’s Work.

DOI: 10.5220/0012942600003882

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies (PAMIR-2 2023), pages 1007-1012

ISBN: 978-989-758-723-8

1007

an impartial assessment of the published works. The

lack of a free environment for creative people,

Japanese politics, and ideological suffocation put an

end to the initial attempts of critics. The arbitrariness,

violence, and colonial oppression prevailing in the

country have taken the reins of literary critics as well

as other fields. In this situation, Yom Sansop, who

was committed to impartial criticism, entered into a

debate with Kim Donin, which was considered an

important event for the period, and his fierce speech

was worthy of praise.

History is a mirror. The truth that was reflected in

the mirror was reflected in the works in the words.

However, the work of brave people like Yom Sansop

was not enough to honestly evaluate the aesthetic

appeal of these works, or, on the contrary, that the

work was written in a way that was prone to the

deterioration of the times.

In 1920, Bakhodir Karim, who felt the need to

educate the aesthetic taste of the reader, published

the stories “Frog in the Laboratory” (1921), “Dark

Night” (1922), “The Last Night of the Year” (1922),

which acquired a new form and new content. These

stories belong to the author’s early work, and they are

sharply different from the stories of writers of this

period in terms of the problem, style and theme.

Known in literary circles as a critic, the author

prioritized form in the stories he created. Uzbek

scientist D. Kuronov shows the existing opinions on

the issue of classification of form and content

components in the following way:

 Theme, problem, idea - elements of content:

plot, composition, language, rhythm, a

system of images - elements of the form

(Shepilova);

 Theme, idea, character-content elements;

plot, composition, language-form elements

(L. Timofeev);

 Theme, idea - content elements; image, plot,

composition, rhythm, language - form

elements (V. Gulyaev, G. Abramovich);

 Theme, idea - content elements; image - a

phenomenon of both form and content,

language, means of artistic representation,

conflict, composition, type, genre, structure

of the poem - elements of form (T. Boboev);

 Style, genre, composition, language, rhythm

- elements of form; theme, fable, conflict,

characters, artistic idea, tendency - content

elements; the plot is a phenomenon of both

form and content (V. Kojinov);

 Plot form is also an element of content;

theme, fable, a system of images, conflict -

internal form; composition - external form;

ideological content is a content event

Botyrova Sh.I. (2019).

Yom Sansop meant that the subject reflects the idea

of the work within the framework of the problem of

form. For example, in the story “Frog in the

Laboratory” he describes the state of depression that

surrounded the country after the Japanese

colonization. The story is told in the first person.

“First-person narration creates a realistic illusion of

the psychological state of the hero. Because the

person himself is talking about himself” - Ten A.N.

(1998). The main character narrates about the

sufferings and difficulties faced by the Korean

society. The main character in the work is one, and in

the story he is telling, the changes taking place in his

mind and psyche are formed in clear visions before

the eyes of the reader. The rest of the characters in the

story are secondary, their inner world is not revealed,

and they only serve a supporting role in making the

behavior of the main character more obvious.

In his series of articles, South Korean literary

scholar Kim Yoon-sik elaborated on the factors that

motivated the writing of the first three stories of Yom

Sansop and their artistic features. The scholar noted

that these stories are not only new for Korean

literature but also formal stories that promote the idea

that form is the first class according to European

standards. Also, Kim Yoon-sik pointed out the

Japanese prose of the 1910s, especially the works of

writers belonging to the elite literary group “White

Birch” as the source of these stories. During 1910-

1923, the members of this literary association also

published a magazine under the name of this group.

The writers of the group made a great contribution to

the development of modern Japanese prose. One of

the leading writers of the group, Arishima, was close

to Western literature at the end of the 19th century

according to his outlook and ideas - Kuronov D.

(2004).

Kim Yoon-sik drew a parallel between the

Japanese writer Arishima’s novels Roots of Suffering

(1918) and The Stone-Covered Mountain (1918) and

the first three stories written by Yom Sansop. Based

on the results of the analysis, he suggested that the

novels of the Japanese writer Arishima had a strong

influence on the content of the Korean writer’s

stories, especially on his poetics and “inner form”. In

this case, by “inner form” the scientist takes into

account the inner monologue:

“Based on his creative intention, the artist

determines the form of the future work, more

precisely, the content of the future work determines

its form” - Ten A.N. (1998).

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This form is determined by a person’s self-

awareness and discovery. In this story, the novelty of

the form is inextricably linked with its content: the

writer describes the reality of Korea and the difficult

situation of his homeland.

Yom Sansop’s story “Dark Night” was written in

1919, when the author lived in Japan. The story was

published in three issues (1921, issues 8-9-10) of the

magazine “The Beginning of the New Century”. The

author himself includes this story among works that

are artistically incomplete, and the main character’s

image is not fully developed. In terms of form and

content, this story is similar to Arishima’s novel. First

of all, the inner world of a person and the dominance

of the inner monologue in giving forgiveness can be

observed. Some researchers, in particular, Kim

Donin, emphasize the tone of Hamletism in the story.

In this, he gives his words not a literal meaning, but a

broad meaning:

“…When I got acquainted with the first issue of

the magazine, I felt that the author of these lines - a

strong competitor - appeared, and I became worried.

The work discusses the danger and fear felt by a

young person living in the transition period and his

inner experiences. If I was at least deeply troubled by

the appearance of a figure like Yom Sansop in the

literary field, I felt a strong sense of satisfaction at the

thought of the birth of a new Hamlet” - Nikitina M.I.

(1969).

Like Hamlet, who lived in times of crises, conflict

and spiritual experiences, the young hero of the story

is also a difficult person - a person in transition. This

is where the Hamlet tone of the story comes into play.

The main character of the story “Frog in the

Laboratory” is a more developed and in-depth look at

the character of the story “Dark Night”. The names of

the characters of both stories are marked with the

same letter of the English alphabet - X. Although the

characters of the stories “Dark Night” and “Frog in

the Lab’ have similar morals, the character of the

second story is described more broadly. However, the

reasons for the spiritual suffering and loneliness of

the heroes of both stories are not revealed. Also,

Hamlet’s tone is somewhat drummed in the story

“Frog in the Laboratory’. In the words of Kim Yoon

Sik:

“…occupies a special place as a work that started

a special trend in our modern prose” - Botyrova Sh.I.

(2019).

The story “The Last Night of the Year’ is narrow

in terms of content compared to the first two stories.

In particular, it is completely devoid of “hamlets”,

and the story is written in the form of a letter-

monologue. Nevertheless, it indicates that a new form

has entered modern Korean prose.

Romanticism, which led Europe in the first half of

the 19th century, entered Korea in the process of

Westernization at the beginning of the 20th century.

Contemporary writer Yom Sansop also wrote the first

stories “Dark Night” and “Frog in the Laboratory” in

the direction of romanticism, while the third story

“The Last Night of the Year” is close to the direction

of naturalism in terms of style (in fact, naturalism and

realism were mixed in the works of the creators of this

period).

Yom Sansop’s 1923 short story “Until the First of

March” and the three listed stories are closely related.

In this story, the spiritual suffering of the writer about

his homeland and people is reflected. Also, in the

story, there is a bitter truth in the main character’s

thoughts about the freedom of the homeland, the

efforts to change the national system, and the critical

opinions expressed about the people’s habit of living

in arbitrariness:

«What their ancestors created on this land with

their labour, patience, and strength for thousands of

years have now been given to someone else, and they

themselves were expelled to the countryside and

outside the city» - Hamidiy H., et. al. (1967).

The writer primarily blames them for the national

tragedy of his people, comparing them to the poor in

the poem “The Poor” by the poet Lee Sang Hwa. In

the story, the people’s inactivity and shortcomings are

criticized. In the story, the issue of nation is of the first

importance in illuminating the relationship between

the conquerors and the conquered. The writer sees a

“poor nation” in the footsteps of his compatriots. He

sees this in the characteristics of the Han category,

which has not been able to break away from

Confucian norms and is firmly established in his

character, that is, submission to fate, indecisiveness,

tendency to palliative measures, laziness, and flattery.

“…Self-deception is the most important life

wisdom for the Korean people” - Nikitina M.I., et. al.

(1969).

The author’s critical comments about the situation

in his homeland and national ills are absolutely

appropriate. As a progressive thinker of his time, the

writer strongly condemned feudal-Confucian

traditions, old customs, and superstitions, in

particular, worshipping the spirits of ancestors, and

burying the deceased in one's own yard or plot of land

instead of in a common cemetery. The hero of the

story faces these urgent problems at every step: on the

street, in transport, and in his own home. The

protagonist’s next-door neighbour, a young Korean

man who sells zakat (Korean men’s headdresses),

A Distinctive Feature of Yom Sansop’s Work

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worries more than anything else about where and how

to bury his parents after their deaths. When the hero

of the story comes home, the question of where and

how to bury the deceased, even after the death of his

sick wife, becomes an issue. In a conversation with a

young man who trades in Sakkat, the hero tells him

that there are many other issues important to life

besides the cemetery problem, and that one should

think and grieve about living people and not about the

burial place of future corpses.

The short story “Until the First of March” was

originally called “Mozor”. By “grave”, the writer

figuratively means the beliefs of the Korean society

left behind. Also, the author-character is embodied in

the story: at first, Yom Sansop, who was in the vortex

of life’s problems, devoted his life to writing. The

works created in the later stages of his work differ

from these works, so this story can be considered as

an intermediate link between the works created by the

writer in the early and later periods. At the same time,

the short story “Until the First of March” served as a

unique source for the writer’s further work. The short

story is a work of critical-realistic direction mixed

with the spirit of irony.

After the short story “Until the First of March”,

changes occurred not only in the creative style of the

writer but also in his creative direction. The object

and form of the works have also changed. In Yom

Sansop’s first works, the story was told in the first

person, but in his later works, the writer switched to

the third person:

“Narration from the third person language is

distinguished by the fact that it has wider possibilities

in terms of the image of the inner world. In this, the

author brings the reader into the inner world of the

character without any restrictions and shows the

climates of the psyche in a deeper, more detailed

way” - Botyrova Sh.I. (2019).

The tone and spirit of the work also changed, in

which the emotional, subjective attitude to the events

disappeared. Although the story “Until the First of

March” is imbued with a deep realistic spirit, it has a

certain lyrical basis. By the maturity of Yom Sansop’s

work, everyday life and ordinary people, family,

livelihood, behaviour and customs became the

subjects of the work. The creative style of the writer

became more complicated as a result of the

interaction between realism and naturalism.

According to some researchers, although during his

creative life, the writer gained fame as a writer who

promoted and defe006Eded the direction of realism

in his concrete content, his style was distinguished

from the style of other writers who created in the

direction of realism in the 20s due to its unique form

and style.

It is worth noting that in the works of writers of

this period, realism is mixed with naturalism. Based

on the opinion of naturalists that “literature should

not selectively describe the material of life, it should

describe it as much as possible” Yom Sansop refused

to copy reality, choose life events, and distinguish

types. The writer has an objective approach to reality,

far from subjectivity, the basis of authorship, the

creator's attitude to life, and his point of view. In this

sense, the writer is “a unique phenomenon among

Korean realist writers”.

In the 1920s of the 20th century, themes such as

family conflicts, the consequences of alcoholism, the

inability to join the flow of a big city, and the situation

that negatively affects a person were leading in the

works of Korean artists. In this respect, the stories

created by Yom Sansop were close to the work of

Western artists.

According to Korean researchers, the stories

“Death and the Artist”, “Sunflower”, and “The Bell”

written by the author are distinguished by the use of

image tools. These stories give the impression that the

author tried to capture reality. In literary circles, he

was distinguished by his realistic views. There are no

small things for him at work. He carefully chooses the

name not only for the main characters but also for the

secondary characters. Also, critics of Yom Sansop’s

“Hurray!” Before the Scream and “Uch Avlod”

novel, the main characters admit that they have gone

too deep into their psyche and family problems.

Yom Sansop’s creative image is complex,

colourful and full of contradictions. The writer made

a worthy contribution to the national literary

movement with his work. First of all, the writer

appeared as the founder of the style of speaking in

prose, the leader of the movement for pure literature,

and he took a worthy place among the writers who

made a great contribution to the development of solos

in this period. He was also one of the first to introduce

aestheticism and naturalism into literary processes in

the history of Korean literature. The contemporary

writer Lee Gwansu was one of the first to put forward

the ideas of romanticism, nationalism and humanism,

but Yom Sansop introduced a perfect and consistent

style of speech instead of his complicated and

occasional style of speech.

The next stage of Yom Sansop’s creativity was

his cooperation with the magazine “Sotvorenie Mira”

founded in 1920. Although this magazine is not

directly related to fiction like “Ijod” and “Harobalar”

magazines, it made a significant contribution to the

development of modern Korean literature. Famous

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religious figures such as Chwe Jongjon, Lee Duson,

and Lee Donghwa were also members of the editorial

board. The founders of the magazine openly

demonstrated that the art of speech should be used as

a weapon for the liberation of the nation. As a result,

the magazine came under the control of local and

Japanese authorities.

In 1923, when socialist ideas began to be

propagated in the country, the literary department of

the magazine received a new impulse. For this reason,

Park Yonghee, a member of “White Wave”

magazine, became a member of this magazine, and

Kim Kijin returned from Japan. In each issue of the

magazine, readers were introduced to the theory of

Marxist literature. Not long after that, the magazine

took a socialist turn. However, since the magazine

was primarily famous for promoting the struggle

against the Japanese government, far from socialist

ideas, famous poets and writers of the time, such as

Kim Ok, Kim Sowol, and Yom Sansop, were active

in the magazine’s work.

In 1927, Yom Sansop noted in the article “Literature

and Life” that he would continue his work in the

direction of realism. In this, the writer emphasized

that he reflects life with all his being, strictly adhering

to household life and views. As proof of this, he wrote

the stories “Love and Crime’ and “The Hypocrite”.

In 1930, Yom Sansop was promoted to the

position of head of the culture department of the

Korean Bulletin magazine. In this department, the

writer was engaged in sorting the works of art

recommended for publication. In 1931, Yom Sansop

wrote the novel “Uch Avlod’, which was the peak of

his creativity. In this novel, the author reveals the

transition of the feudal system, which dominated the

country for many centuries, to the capitalist system in

the 19th and 20th centuries through the conflict

between generations and ancestors.

The author’s novel “Three Generations” is a

trilogy, and the work was a great innovation in the

development of modern Korean novels. The plot of

the novel is organized by the conflicting relationship

between a grandmother who is faithful to Confucian

traditions, a father who is not afraid to speak openly

about changing the social order, and a son who is

looking for his place in a new life.

Yom Sansop became a supporter of literature

without any ideology. In August 1945, written after

the liberation of Korea, in “Records of a Man from a

Dictator’s Country”, the writer told about his creative

path and his services:

“For 36 years, I have been working only on the

path of prose, without far-sighted intentions and

pretensions. My labour is like the labour of a farmer

who, with a hoe in his hand, has fallen into a deep

gorge, where no one has yet set foot, to plough and

cultivate the land”.

At first glance, it seems like an exaggeration for

the writer to give such a high assessment of his work,

to exaggerate his merits. However, Kim Donin

emphasized that such an assessment has serious

grounds, that it is necessary to have a national writing

based on the relevant lexicon to create modern prose

and artistic text.

Before the country’s independence, he created

such works as “The Figovoe Tree” and “When the

Peonies Bloom”. At the same time, he published the

stories he created during this period in the form of a

collection under the name ‘Yosh Avlod”. In 1950,

when the civil war started on the Korean Peninsula,

Yom Sansop joined the South Korean army.

During the war, creative people founded the

organization of military writers. For the first time, in

May 1951, the “Organization of Military Writers”

was founded under the leadership of the novelist

Chwe San Tok. Kim Pal Young, Kim Son, Park Yong

Chun, Chhwe Tae Un, Chon Pi Seok, Park In Hwan,

Kim I Seok, I Tok Chin and others joined the

organization. They wrote military songs, created

memoirs, gave lectures, staged plays, and also

operated the official publishing house “Military

Literature of the Front”. At the same time, the

“Marine Writers’ Organization” was founded, the

organization was headed by the writer I Son Koo, and

writers such as Yoon Pak Nam, Yom Sansop, I Moo

Yeon, Ahn Su Kil, I Chon Hwan, Park Yong Hoi were

members of the organization. Writers such as Cho Chi

Hoon, Cho Hwe In Wook, Cho Hwe Chon Hoi, Park

Tu Jin, Park Mok Wol, Hwang Sun Won, Kim Ton

Ri, Kim Yoo Son, I San Ro became members of the

Air Force Writers Club and participated in various

events. actively participated. These writers were

distinguished from the representatives of the post-war

generation by their direct participation in the war. For

this reason, the outlook of these authors was also

sharply different from that of their contemporaries. In

this way, they tried to maintain spiritual integrity.

“Stormy Jala” by Yom Sansop, a member of the

“Marine Writers’ Organization”, was published in the

periodical “Choson Ilbo” from July 13, 1952 to

February 20, 1953. The work consists of a trilogy, the

chapter “Warm Currents” was published from

January 1 to June 25, 1950. The second chapter

“Birdsong’ was published in Kukje Shinbo from

December 15, 1953, to February 25, 1954. The first

chapter acts as a link between the next two chapters.

In “Warm Currents”, the author tried to give a

new type of person and new moral rules based on the

A Distinctive Feature of Yom Sansop’s Work

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impartial “worldview” of the writer, relying on the

ideas of the union of the right and left wings. The

story focuses on the combination of money - trading

and paper products companies - which appear as the

hidden main motivation behind the working days of

the characters. The phrase “New human type and new

moral image” was introduced by Yom Sansop, who

wrote the novel “Three Generations” in the early

1930s.

The work “Warm Currents” is a continuation of

the work “Stormy Rain”, in the work, the names of

the characters and the names of the places of the

events have been changed due to the war.

“Hurricane Rain” describes the life of Yoon Sik,

the head of a Korean-American trading company, and

his secretary. The secretary also works as a translator,

a woman whose husband is in the North becomes

Yeon Sik’s lover. The events in the play are related to

the power of the opposition in Seoul from June 25 to

September 28, 1951. Despite the era of chaos, the

rhythm of daily life is not completely disrupted when

the North Korean People’s Army enters. Men and

women make love as before, miserly old people, as

usual, keep their savings hidden, companies have

resumed their activities, and trams are running as

before. Distribution of rice, collection of fuel, change

to summer clothes - in short, life went on without

major changes.

The trilogy ends with “Birdsong”. In this, the

description of the life of refugees Shin and Kan

remains the same as in the first work. In the final

work, the author focuses not on the theme of war, but

on the simple details of the everyday life of his

characters.

3 CONCLUSION

In this way, the author points out that war is an

unexpected natural phenomenon, and the war will

stop anyway. At the same time, “Storm rain” means

the “stain” left by the rain in Korean people’s daily

life, the rain is the “Korean War”. He believes that the

“stain” can be washed away with water. The author

emphasizes the following through the “stain” detail:

Although the Korean War represents a terrible

external force, it is compared to heavy rain; the rain

starts unexpectedly and ends unexpectedly. Everyday

“stained’ life remains unchanged.

It should be noted that in a number of works

dedicated to the Korean War, the main emphasis is on

tragic situations. Yom San Sop also describes daily

life in detail in this trilogy, but the major changes

caused by the war are neglected.

After the end of the war, the writer worked as the

director of Sorabol Art Institute. The writer, whose

health deteriorated, did not stop creating, even if he

did not go to work. Yom Sansop’s creativity was duly

rewarded. In 1963, the writer passed away.

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those things and events in terms of their natural

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