Ahn Junghyo[a] (2 December 1941 – 1 July 2023) was a South Korean novelist and literary translator.[3]

Ahn Junghyo
Born(1941-12-02)2 December 1941
Keijō, Korea, Empire of Japan
Died1 July 2023(2023-07-01) (aged 82)
LanguageKorean
NationalitySouth Korean
CitizenshipSouth Korean
Korean name
Hangul
안정효
Hanja
安正孝[1]
Revised RomanizationAn Jeonghyo
McCune–ReischauerAn Chŏnghyo

Life

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Ahn Junghyo was born on 2 December 1941, in Seoul, where he graduated from Sogang University with a BA in English literature in 1965. He worked as an English-language writer for the The Korea Herald in 1964, and later served as a director for The Korea Times in 1975–1976. He was editorial director for the Korean division of Encyclopædia Britannica from 1971 to 1974.[4]

Ahn made his debut as a translator in 1975, when he published a Korean translation of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, which was serialized in the monthly Literature & The Intellect [ko].[5] From that time until the late 1980s, he translated approximately 150 foreign works into Korean.

Ahn died of cancer on 1 July 2023, at the age of 82.[6]

Work

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His first novel was Of War and the Metropolis, now known as White War (하얀전쟁), which was published in 1983 to a chilly critical reception. It discussed his experiences as a Republic of Korea Army soldier in the Vietnam War. He translated it into English and had it published in the United States, where it was released by Soho Press in 1989 under the title The White Badge. In 1992 it was also made into a film, White Badge, shot on location in Vietnam.[7] The book was then reissued in Korea as White War in 1993, and was received much more favorably than before.

Works in Korean

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Awards

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ 안정효 (安正孝). National Library of Korea. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  2. ^ "Author Database". LTI Korea. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
  3. ^ "안정효" biographical PDF available at LTI Korea Library or online at: http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do# Archived 21 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Lee, Kyung-ho (1996). "Ahn, Jung-Hyo". Who's Who in Korean Literature. Seoul: Hollym. pp. 13–15. ISBN 1-56591-066-4.
  5. ^ Korean Writers The Novelists. Minumsa Press. 2005. p. 9.
  6. ^ '하얀 전쟁' 소설가 안정효 별세…향년 82세 (in Korean)
  7. ^ Kagan, Richard C. (October 2000), "Disarming Memories: Japanese, Korean, and American Literature on the Vietnam War", Critical Asian Studies, 32 (4), archived from the original on 1 December 2008, retrieved 2 December 2008
  1. ^ This is the author's preferred Romanization per LTI Korea[2]
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