Yi In-Jik

Yi In-Jik 

(pseudonym, Kugch’o). Born June 27, 1862, near Ansong, province of Kyonggi do; died Nov. 25, 1916, in Seoul. Korean writer and enlightenment figure.

Yi In-jik graduated from the School of Politics in Tokyo (1904). In 1910 he went to work for the Japanese occupationists, believing that they would contribute to the modernization of feudal Korea. He edited the Seoul-based pro-Japanese newspapers Kungmin Sinbo (1905) and Mansebo (1906). Yi In-jik’s didactic tales Tears of Blood (1906), Pheasant Hill (1907), Voice of a Devil (1907), and The Silver World (1909) helped to lay the groundwork for the “new prose” (sinsosol). He was also a founder of modern Korean dramaturgy.

REFERENCE

Ivanova, V. I. “Prosvetitel’stvo ν Koree i tvorchestvo Li Indzhika.” In Teoreticheskie problemy izucheniia literatur Dal’nego Vostoka. Moscow, 1970.

V. I. IVANOVA