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| Novelist Park Kyung-ni at her residence in Wonju, Gangwon Province in 2008 / Korea Times file |
By Park Han-sol
The last residence occupied by Park Kyung-ni (1926-2008), one of Korea's literary giants, in Wonju, Gangwon Province, will open its doors to the public as the Park Kyung-ni Museum, Thursday.
The museum ― consisting of the novelist's house and the neighboring Toji Culture Center ― will host a permanent exhibition that celebrates Park's literary achievements, spanning more than five decades.
While living in her Gangwon home from 1998 until her death from lung cancer in 2008, Park authored several poem and essay collections, as well as the incomplete novel, "Butterfly, Let's Go to the Blue Mountain."
Born in 1926 in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, the celebrated novelist made her official literary debut in 1956 with the publication of two short stories, "Calculations" (1955) and "Black is Black, White is White" (1956) through Hyundae Munhak.
Throughout her career, she wrote nearly 100 novels, short stories and poems, including: "The Age of Distrust" (1957), "The Age of Darkness" (1958), "The Daughters of Pharmacist Kim" (1962) and "The Marketplace and the Battlefield" (1964).
But Park's name is most synonymous with the epic saga, "Land (Toji)," set in modern Korea from the late 19th century all the way through Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule and the division of the peninsula after the 1950-53 Korean War.
First launched as a serial publication in the September 1969 issue of "Modern Literature," the 16-volume series follows the lives of hundreds of characters that reflect the country's tumultuous history. Park devoted 25 years to completing the epic series, which was also adapted into a film, a television series and even an opera. The masterpiece has been included in the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works.
The Toji Culture Foundation, founded in 1996, and the Toji Culture Center, which opened three years later, have served as a platform for fostering the creative minds of writers and artists alike.
"The museum is a place that bears the traces of Park's life, as she surrounded herself with nature to write and contemplate life," its director, Kim Sae-hee, said. "We hope that viewers can learn about the 'real' Park Kyung-ni by visiting the building in its original condition."
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