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Munhak-kwa-Jiseongsa's new novel series, "Munji Writer's Selection"
Rereading yesterday's literature through today's eyes, the "Munji Writer's Selection" took its first steps last July.
In 2019, the year that marks the end of another decade, Munhak-kwa-Jiseongsa has decided that it is time to compile a list of authors and their works that have left a profound mark on Korean literary history and, by extension, modern Korean history, highlighting their literary value and imbuing them with new meaning.
We aim to select writers who have engaged in serious literary exploration, while also enjoying the support of a broad readership and continuing meaningful creative activities as the backbone of Korean literature. We then present their works to readers through a critically selected selection.
We also plan to add commentary by literary critics responsible for editing each volume, providing a detailed look into the literary and historical significance of each author and their work.


The starting point of the "Munji Writers' Selection" is the "4?19 Generation" writers who, during a period of political upheaval in an oppressed era, expressed criticism and resistance against power and society through literary language.
In addition to Choi In-hun's short story collection, "The Moon and the Boy Soldier," which was specially published first to coincide with the first anniversary of his passing, we are publishing the first installment of Kim Seung-ok's short story collection, "Seoul, Winter 1964," Seo Jeong-in's short story collection, "Tangerine," Lee Cheong-jun's short story collection, "The Face of the Perpetrator," and Yun Heung-gil's short story collection, "The Man Left Behind with Nine Pairs of Shoes."
Next, the second installment will feature a selection of short stories by Oh Jeong-hee and Park Wan-seo, the originators of modern Korean women's fiction, in January of next year.


Writing that confronts the changing reality
Yun Heung-gil's short story collection, "The Man Left Behind with Nine Pairs of Shoes"
After "The Season of the Gray Crown" was selected for the 1968 Hankook Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest, Yun Heung-gil's "The Man Who Remained with Nine Pairs of Shoes", which marks the 51st anniversary of his literary debut, was published as the fifth book in the Munji Writers' Series.
The second collection of short stories with the same work as the title was published in 1977, and novelist Lee Mun-gu said the following year, “1977 was the year of novelist Yun Heung-gil.” The series “The Man Left with Nine Pairs of Shoes,” which continues with “Straight Lines and Curves,” “Pale Middle Age,” and “Wings or Handcuffs,” is evaluated as a monumental masterpiece of Korean literature in the late 1970s and a pioneering work that opened a new horizon for Korean literature in the 1980s. (Seong Min-yeop, “The Current Meaning of the Series “The Man Left with Nine Pairs of Shoes,” Commentary on the New Edition of “The Man Left with Nine Pairs of Shoes,” 1997) This time, “The Man Left with Nine Pairs of Shoes,” which has been re-collected as a Munji writer’s collection, includes “The House of Twilight” (1970) and “House” (1972), which show the characteristics of Yun Heung-gil’s early novels, and “The House” (1972), which show the two directions of literature of division. Nine short stories, including “When Does the Rainbow Rises” (1978) and the novella “Rice” (1993), which mark important points in the world of Yun Heung-gil’s novels spanning half a century, are included.

In the introduction, literary critic Son Jeong-su, who was in charge of editing this book, argues that the “significance as a novelistic response to contemporary challenges,” such as the evaluation that “Yoon Heung-gil’s novels captured the problems of Korean society that arose due to division and industrialization and aesthetically presented a direction to overcome them,” “can now be said to have been historicized” due to the changing times, and that “nevertheless, his novels still produce problems by giving rise to new interpretations in many aspects.”
This book emphasizes once again that the nine short stories included are not just the fruits of the past, but still powerful works.

“The House at Dusk” and “The House,” which unfold from the perspective of a child, are works that allow us to glimpse “the unique personality of Yun Heung-gil’s early novels, which do not stop at realistic representation while recalling childhood immediately after the war.”
And the story of these characters with childhood memories growing up and entering reality continues in “Early Winter” (1975) and “The Man Left with Nine Pairs of Shoes.”
These two works, set in Seongnam, also feature a 'house' as the body of the novel, but there is something in particular that deserves attention in a context different from that of these early novels.
It is a change in the way we resolve the gap between ourselves and others.
As we move from “The Cold Winter” to “The Man Left with Nine Pairs of Shoes,” we see “the object that arouses desire in the subject” moving “step by step from the presence of sexual temptation to the presence of human compassion and hierarchical solidarity,” which is a very meaningful change.
Additionally, in representative novels about division, such as “When Does the Rainbow Rises” and “Rice,” we can see a change in the way division is dealt with.
The former takes the approach of “symbolic processing,” which is not unfamiliar in Yun Heung-gil’s novels, while the latter shows how to overcome the division issue by “facing the contradiction itself.”
The process of reading to confirm these changes will not only provide the pleasure of encountering works representing the world of author Yun Heung-gil, who has led the novelistic trend of our time by continuously writing in the face of changing reality, but will also allow you to feel the power of his works to always acquire new, contemporary meaning as time passes.