빛의 과거
- Page
- 344
- Publication Date
- August 30, 2019
- ISBN
- 9788932035635
The story begins in 2017 with the narrator, “me,” and her old friend, “her.” They first met in 1977, forty years ago at a women’s college dormitory. The narrator had always been self-conscious about her stammer, which shaped her into a non-committal and unassertive person, while she felt at ease with her friend’s self-centered, direct, and paradoxically both inferior and superior attitude.
Her friend had published a novel titled For the Princesses Who Are No Longer There, recounting their dormitory days. Although the narrator had known her for many years, she didn’t read the book until much later—and was surprised to discover that their memories of that shared time were completely different. The author portrays a world of “difference” and “integration” that these young women, coming of age, experience within the new and unfamiliar milieu of the dormitory. The literary critic Shin Hyungchul stated in his introduction that Eun Heekyung’s book does not let readers down—no matter what their expectations are, whether it be the detailed depiction of the culture of that era, the fluid and apt writing, or her sharp and truthful observation of women’s experiences. The author presents a scrupulous portrayal of Korean culture in the 1970s through the lives of female students sharing a communal space in a college dormitory. It was a time when 'Virtuosity, Hard Work, and Chastity' were the mottos for these young women from the provinces who were living in Seoul for the first time.
Above all, what stands out is the candid confessions of a woman coming face to face with her bare self—someone who has long used evasion as a shield against life. She navigates this inner confrontation by moving back and forth through time. “A person with a weakness has an extra antenna for the world.” The author’s meticulously crafted prose reveals the universal struggle of the individual in life, holding up a mirror to the reader. In this way, ‘the stories of that period’ filter through a writer named Eun Heekyung to become ‘my story’ for everyone.