Jang Deok-sun

Jang Deok-sun (; July 9, 1921 – August 20, 1996) was a Korean literary scholar and essayist of Seoul National University. Jang has his familial roots in Uljin and his literary alias is Seongsan. Jang graduated from the Humanities Department of Yeonhee Professional School and the Korean Literature Department of Seoul National University. He then contributed to the studies of Korean literature, mythical and oral literature, and traditional Korean literature prior to the introduction of Western literary models in Korea. through the studies done in his first book, General Theory of Korean Literature . His work, History of Korean Literature , includes the argument that although traditional literature written in Chinese characters can be included within the spectrum of the Korean literary tradition, there is a need to differentiate the literature before and after the creation of the Korean alphabet Hangul by King Sejong the Great in 1446.

Life

Early life and education Jang was born as the second son of his family in July 1921 in Longjing, Manchuria, under Japanese Colonial Rule. He graduated from Chung-ang Elementary School in 1935. Jang went on to Gwangmyeong Middle School in 1939, and studied under the Humanities Department at Yeonhee Professional School starting from 1941 (which was the predecessor of modern-day Yonsei University) and graduated in March 1944.

Jang then graduated from the Korean Language and Literature Department of Seoul National University in July, 1949 with a Ph.D in Literature through writing his book, Study on Korean Folk Literature (1970).

Jang died on August 20, 1996, due to a chronic illness in his residence in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. He was 75 years old at the time. Jang is now buried in Jangheung, Gyeonggi-do.

Awards and acknowledgements Jang established The Seongsan Scholarly Award in 1995. The award is designated for people who contribute to the study of Korean classical literature and the first recipient of the award was Professor Jo Gyu-ik of Soongsil University on September 5, 1996, after Jang's death.

Criticism Later scholars criticized Jang's first work, General Theory of Korean Literature, for its viewpoint to differentiate between literature written in Chinese characters during the Chosun Dynasty and the works written in the Korean writing system. Also in the same book, Jang's method of categorizing Korean literature into three "forms" , which could be named as lyrical , epic , and dramatic , instead of using the Western-influenced term "genre" , received objection as well. His wording of the "forms" wasn't the main subject of discussion, but within the form of epic literature, Jang included both non-fictional essays and works of fiction such as novels that focus on narrating fictional events. This caused issues in the actual practice of following his categorization method.

Published works

『국문학통론』 (English: General Theory of Korean Literature) (1960) 『한국의 여속』 (English: Korean Women's Literature) (1969) 『한국설화문학연구』 (English: Korean Folktale Literature Studies) (1970) 『구비문학개설』 (Oral Literature Introduction) (1971) 『한국풍속지』 (Korean Customs) (1972) 『한국문학사』 (History of Korean Literature) (1976) 『한국수필문학사』(History of Korean Essay Literature) (1977) 『한국문학의 연원과 현장』)(Origin and Sites of Korean Literature) (1986) 『성산장덕순선생저작집』 전 10권 (Collected Works of Seongsan Jang Deok-sun, 10 Volumes) (1995)