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to meet secretly and to corresponded frequently

with each other.

Hölderlin briefly worked in France as a private

tutor. During this period, his mental health was

becoming unstable. In 1802, Hölderlin returned

to Germany in the advanced stages of schizophre-

nia. After learning about Susette’s death in 1805,

Hölderlin suffered a complete psychological break-

down and spent the last 36 years of his life in an

unstable state of mind. He died in poverty and vir-

tual obscurity.

Critical Analysis

Combining the elements of classicism and ROMAN-

TICISM, Hölderlin did not exclusively belong to ei-

ther of the two dominant literary movements of

his day. He tended to use classical verse form and

syntax in his poetry, following the teachings of

Friedrich Klopstock (1724–1803), who attempted

to perfect the German language by modeling it to a

classical form. From the Romantics, Hölderlin

borrowed a rich but convoluted tradition of mysti-

cal nature, pantheism, and Christianity. He re-

ferred to notions of the cosmos and history to

assign some poetic meaning to a world that was

collapsing before his eyes. By following and en-

riching the German philosophical tradition, he

greatly contributed to the formation of German

idealism, a term usually used to define liberal,

philosophical trends during and after the French

Revolution.

Hölderlin’s most famous novel, Hyperion

(1797–99), focuses on the young Greek of ancient

mythology who takes up arms to fight the Turkish

oppression in his homeland. The novel virtually has

no plot; Hyperion’s beauty rises from its lyrical,

dithyrambic (highly emotional) language com-

bined with a deep knowledge of Greek antiquity.

The romance of the novel is developed in the form

of letters between Hyperion and his beloved. Hy-

perion has often been celebrated as a masterpiece of

German literature. It certainly impressed Friedrich

Schiller when the young Hölderlin presented the

manuscript of the novel to the famous poet, who

encouraged Hölderlin to continue his work.

The vast majority of Hölderlin’s work deals

with heroic themes or subjects. In his poetry, he

preferred to maintain classical verse measures. He

dedicated an ode to French emperor Napoleon

Bonaparte (titled “Bonaparte” (1798), in which he

compares Bonaparte to a poet:

Poets are holy vessels

In which the wine of life,

The spirit of heroes is preserved.

But this young man’s spirit,

The quick—would it not burst,

Any vessel that tried to contain it?

Hölderlin’s verse, especially in its attention to the

preservation of classical Greek measures, seems, at

the same time, both heroic and rugged. The lyricism

is achieved through carefully selected images and ir-

regular lines. Hölderlin’s verse became popular, es-

pecially among students of philosophy for its liberal

inclinations and romantic celebration of life.

In a series of poems to his beloved Diotima,

Hölderlin reveals a delicate control of the classical

image. In “Diotima” (1797), Hölderlin reveals the

full potential of his poetic mind: “Beautiful thing,

you live as do delicate blossoms in winter / In a

world that’s grown old hidden your blossom,

alone.” The Diotima poems are considered among

the greatest lyrical poems in the German language.

Hölderlin dedicated the last years of his life to

translating Sophocles’ works into German. His

translations are still considered superb.

Friedrich Hölderlin did not achieve the recog-

nition that his works enjoy today until the early

part of the 20th century. Hölderlin was the favorite

poet of Friedrich

NIETZSCHE, and Martin Heidegger

referred to Hölderlin as “a poet’s poet.” Today,

Hölderlin is considered second only to GOETHE.In

many respects, Hölderlin is still being rediscovered

for the beauty of his poetic form and the magnifi-

cent control of his poetic lines.

Other Works by Friedrich Hölderlin

Hymns and Fragments. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton

University Press, 1984.

208 Hölderlin, Friedrich

Selected Poems and Fragments. New York: Penguin,

1998.

Works about Friedrich Hölderlin

Fioretos, Aris. The Solid Letter: Readings of Friedrich

Hölderlin. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University

Press, 2000.

Unger, Richard. Friedrich Hölderlin. Boston: Twayne,

1984.

Höllerer, Walter (1922– ) poet, critic

Walter Höllerer was born in the Bavarian town of

Sulzbach-Rosenberg. During World War II, he

served in the German military on the Mediter-

ranean front. After the war, he studied at universi-

ties in Erlangen, Göttingen, and Heidelberg,

earning a doctorate in 1949 in comparative litera-

ture. Höllerer then began a long career as a profes-

sor of German and comparative literature at

Frankfurt University, the Technical University of

Berlin, and the University of Illinois. He co-

founded and edited the journals Akzente (Accents)

and Sprache im technischen Zeitalter (Language in

the Technological Age). In 1977 he founded the

Archives for Contemporary German Literature in

Sulzbach-Rosenberg.

Höllerer’s first collection Der andrere Gast (The

Other Guest, 1952) contains many poems written

in classical meters. Four years later, he edited Tran-

sit (1956), a significant anthology of German po-

etry. Höllerer published three more volumes of

verse in the 1960s. During the following decade, he

wrote the novel Die Elephantenuhr (The Elephant

Clock, 1973), a complicated work that reflects his

perception of chaos in the contemporary world.

His comedy Alle Vögel alle (All the Birds, 1978) is a

composition that was influenced by his conception

of semiology.

In addition to his writing and editing, Höllerer

attained recognition in his versatile career as a

scholar, critic, and literary theorist. He was also a

prominent member of the German writers’ asso-

ciation GRUPPE

. Although his early poetry con-

tained traditional forms, Höllerer later became

more progressive, writing experimental lyrical

poems. His view of literature emphasized its role in

communicating art, science, and everyday life. Be-

cause he has spent much time and energy promot-

ing the careers of young authors, Höllerer’s

influence in German literature will likely remain

strong well into the 21st century.

Another Work by Walter Höllerer

Gedichte 1942–1982. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp,

1982.

A Work about Walter Höllerer

Frisch, Max. Dramaturgisches: ein Briefwechsel mit

Walter Höollerer. Berlin: Literarisches Collo-

quium, 1976.

Hsieh Wan-ying

See BING XIN.

Hu Shih (Hu Hongxin) (1891–1962) poet,

scholar, critic

Born on December 17 in Shanghai, Hu Shih was

educated first by private tutors and then in Shang-

hai schools. He entered China College in 1906,

where he published essays and poems in a school

paper, Emulation, which he later edited. Hu Shih

traveled to the United States to study agriculture at

Cornell University in 1910 but soon switched to

literature and philosophy. He completed his Ph.D.

in philosophy at Columbia University under the

department head, John Dewey.

Greatly influenced by his studies of imagist po-

etry, American literature, and his experiences in

the United States, Hu Shih wrote an article con-

sidered by many to have brought about the era of

modern Chinese literature. “Suggestions for a Re-

form of Literature” was published in 1919 in the

popular journal New Youth and made him one of

the leading intellectuals of the anti-imperialist

May Fourth Movement. In his article, Hu Shih en-

couraged writing that addressed substantive and

timely issues and that was innovative and fresh and

Hu Shih 209

used accessible language, particularly baihua, the

Chinese vernacular.

Hu Shih himself was one of the first to attempt

baihua poetry in a 1920 volume titled Experiments.

Although the literary quality of the poems is con-

sidered only fair, the style was, nonetheless, a pio-

neering work in modern poetry. Hu Shih

incorporated innovations such as writing without

traditional meters, transcribing Western names

into verse, and writing in a pragmatic and imper-

sonal style.

As one of the leading literary intellectuals in

the 1920s and 1930s, Hu Shih criticized official

corruption and vice in the ranks of leadership.

He also expressed grave concern over the condi-

tion of workers, especially the particularly disad-

vantaged—women, rural poor, and factory

laborers. He was known as a radical for being a

Confucian realist who combined classical Confu-

cian and Daoist thought with modern pragma-

tism, individualism, and secular humanism. He

also supported opening China to Western ideas

and influence while maintaining China’s classical

traditions and thought.

At the time, Hu Shih was considered China’s

foremost man of letters, as well as a cultural icon.

As a result, he enjoyed prestige and acclaim. After

serving as ambassador to the United States from

1938 until 1942, he presided over the prestigious

Beijing University from 1946 until 1949 when he

moved to the United States to direct the Gest Ori-

ental Library at Princeton.

Hu Shih continued his focus on scholarship,

studying the 18th-century Chinese classic by Cao

Xueqin, Dream of the Red Chamber, praising its

autobiographical angle. His studies prompted

the onset of his own persecution in China be-

cause officials felt that his scholarship that ad-

dressed the novel’s literary form undermined its

political importance as an exposé of feudal soci-

ety and the traditional family system. Party con-

servatives also viewed him as overly Westernized.

As he was politically moderate, Hu Shih was

also reviled for his increasing distance from

revolutionary thought.

Hu Shih, however, remained undeterred.

Throughout his career, he produced reference

and scholarly works, including An Outline of the

History of Chinese Philosophy in 1919. He also

translated a wide selection of writers from the

Americans Bret Harte and John Dewey to the

French writer Alphonse Daudet. Hu Shih moved

to Taiwan in 1958 to serve as the president of the

country’s highest cultural institution, the Acade-

mia Sinica. He remained in Taiwan until his

death.

Another Work by Hu Shih

A Hu Shi Reader. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Far East-

ern Publications, 1991.

Works about Hu Shih

Goldman, Merle. Modern Chinese Literature in the

May Fourth Era. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni-

versity Press, 1977.

Grieder, Jerome B. Hu Shih and the Chinese Renais-

sance: Liberalism in the Chinese Revolution,

1917–1937. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University

Press, 1970.

Huang Chunming (Huang Ch’un-ming)

(1939– ) short-story writer, satirist

Huang Chunming was born in Yilan, a small

coastal town in Taiwan on February 13. He ran

away from home after his mother’s death and

wandered from place to place, performing odd

jobs. This pattern continued with his schooling as

he drifted from college to college until he gradu-

ated from Pingtung Normal College and as he

worked at various jobs, as schoolteacher, freelance

musicologist, radio program editor, television

producer, and documentary filmmaker. As a

writer, he has created a small but distinctive body

of work that is known for its national and popu-

lar appeal.

In the late 1960s, Huang Chunming’s main

theme is the agrarian fight against the disinte-

grating effects of modernization on their com-

210 Huang Chunming

munities. Because he traveled frequently through

the countryside, he was in tune with the particu-

lar trials of agrarian workers. Although con-

cerned with the fate of individuals who were

faced with a rapidly changing and increasingly

modern society, he was not a traditionalist; he

simply objected to the often dehumanizing as-

pects of progress. One of his most famous stories,

“His Son’s Big Doll” (1968), illustrates how com-

mercialization undermines individual dignity—a

father accepts a job as a walking costumed adver-

tisement and dreads being discovered by his

young son. Other stories, such as “The Drowning

of an Old Cat” (1967), directly address official

corruption.

Huang Chunming’s literary style is simple, sim-

ilar to folk writing, and although it largely portrays

realistic images of rural life, it is modern. His

views—universal and anti-imperialistic—and his

progressive politics render him a modern teller of

folk stories.

A self-described vagabond and free spirit,

Huang Chunming presently spends most of his

time as a scholar and practitioner of folk culture.

He researches and compiles Taiwanese folk songs

and documents Taiwanese festivals on film, in ad-

dition to writing stories that celebrate the common

people and folk life.

Another Work by Huang Chunming

The Drowning of an Old Cat and Other Stories. Trans-

lated by Howard Goldblatt. Bloomington: Indiana

University Press, 1980.

Works about Huang Chunming

“Father’s Writings Have Been Republished: Or, The

Sexuality of Women Students in a Taibei Book-

store.” In Helmut Martin and Jeffrey Kinkley, eds.,

Modern Chinese Writers: Self-Portrayals. Armonk,

N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1992.

Goldblatt, Howard. “The Rural Stories of Huang

Chunming.” In Jeannette L. Faurot, ed., Chinese

Fiction from Taiwan: Critical Perspectives. Bloom-

ington: Indiana University Press, 1980.

Huchel, Peter (1903–1981) poet

Peter Huchel was born in Berlin to Friedrich

Huchel, a civil servant, and Marie (Zimmermann)

Huchel. He grew up in Mark Brandenburg and

studied literature at Humboldt University, the

University of Freiburg, and the University of Vi-

enna. Huchel supported himself as a writer and

translator before serving in the German army dur-

ing World War II. From 1945 to 1948, he edited,

produced, and directed for East German radio and

in 1948 edited Sinn und Form (Meaning and

Form), making it one of the most respected liberal

European literary journals. He was fired in 1962,

however, for not following the government’s

SOCIALIST-REALISM principles in his editorial policy.

Huchel later moved to West Germany and mar-

ried Nora Rosenthal in 1953.

Huchel published his early poems in journals in

the 1920s. In 1932, he won the literary prize of the

leftist journal Die Kolonne (The Column). After

World War II, he published many of his early

poems in Gedichte (Poems, 1948). His later collec-

tions included Chausseen Chausseen (Highways

Highways, 1963) and Die Neunte Stunde (The

Ninth Hour, 1979). Huchel won numerous literary

awards, including the National Prize in 1951.

His influences included the poets Oskar Loerke

and Wilhelm Lehmann. Many of his poems about

nature describe the magic and mystery of the land-

scape near his hometown of Mark Brandenburg,

and critics have praised the effective use of rhyme,

meter, assonance, and alliteration in his early verse.

After falling out of favor with the East German

government, Huchel became withdrawn and iso-

lated. His later writing used less rhyme and meter,

and his poems were elegiac, melancholy, and pes-

simistic. Despite the opposition he faced, Huchel

retained his principles and integrity. Literary

scholar Ian Hilton wrote that “Huchel swam

against the tide to remain stubbornly independ-

ent—and survived, albeit with difficulty.”

Another Work by Peter Huchel

Selected Poems. Translated by Michael Hamburger.

Manchester, U.K.: Carcanet Press, 1974.

Huchel, Peter 211

A Work about Peter Huchel

Hilton, Ian. Peter Huchel: Plough a Lonely Furrow.

Dundee, Scotland: Lochee Publications, 1986.

Hugo, Victor (1802–1885) novelist, poet,

dramatist

Now best known internationally for his novels on

which the acclaimed Broadway musicals Les Mis-

érables and Notre Dame de Paris were based,Victor

Hugo was born in Besançon on February 22. His

father, an army general, taught him a great admi-

ration of Napoleon, as a young child; however, as

a result of his parent’s separation, he moved to

Paris to live with his mother and her lover, Hugo’s

father’s former commanding officer. The lover was

executed in 1812 for plotting against Napoleon, an

event that set up a conflicting ideology within the

impressionable young Hugo.

As a youth, Hugo’s views tended toward the

conservative, but he grew to become deeply in-

volved in republican politics, the essence of which

provided the theme for many of his works. From

1815 to 1818, while attending the lycée Louis-le

Grand in Paris, he began to write poems and tragic

verses. He also translated the works of Virgil and,

in 1819, with the help of his brothers, founded the

literary review Conservateur Littéraire. Inspired by

François René de CHATEAUBRIAND, Hugo began to

publish poetry, gaining both recognition and a

pension from Louis XVIII. His debut novel Han

d’Islande (1823) appeared shortly thereafter.

Hugo married Adèle Foucher in 1822. Their

wedding was eventful because Hugo’s brother, dis-

traught over losing a longtime rivalry for her affec-

tions, went insane on the day of the ceremony and

spent the remainder of his life institutionalized.

This event had a profound effect on the psycho-

logical motivations for several of Hugo’s charac-

ters.

Critical Analysis

Hugo came into contact with a number of liberal

writers in the 1820s, and his own political views

began to shift from criticizing Napoleon to glorify-

ing him. He also became involved in the literary

debate between French

CLASSICISM and ROMANTI-

CISM. Although he was not directly involved in po-

litical movements at this time, Hugo nevertheless

expressed his admiration for romanticism and its

values in his works. The preface to his drama,

Cromwell (1827), placed him at the forefront of the

romanticists. His play Hernani (1830), about two

lovers who poison each other, caused a riot be-

tween classicists and romanticists.

Hugo gained lasting fame with Notre-Dame de

Paris (1831; translated 1833), the story, set in 15th-

century Paris, of a deformed and hunchbacked bell-

ringer, Quasimodo, who falls deeply in love with a

beautiful gypsy girl, Esmeralda. His love, however, is

a tragic one: Esmeralda is in love with another man,

Captain Phoebus, and an evil priest, Claude Frollo,

seeks after her. When Frollo discovers that Es-

merelda loves Phoebus, he murders his rival, and

Esmeralda is accused of the crime. Quasimodo

provides sanctuary for his distraught love in the

cathedral, but Frollo finds her. When she rejects

him, he leaves her to be executed. Grief-stricken,

Quasimodo throws the priest from the cathedral

tower and vanishes. Later, it is discovered that there

are not one but two skeletons in Esmeralda’s tomb,

locked in an eternal embrace, a beautiful gypsy and

the hunchback who loved her. The story was well

received and has since become a prominent cultural

myth.

Following the success of Notre-Dame de Paris,

Hugo published several volumes of lyric poetry, all

of which were also successful. He was considered by

many to be the greatest poet of the day. These

poems were inspired by an actress, Juliette Drouet,

with whom Hugo had an affair that lasted until her

death in 1882. His principal poetic works include

Les Orientales (1829), Feuilles d’automme (Au-

tumn’s Leaves, 1831), Chants du crépuscule (Twilight

Songs, 1835), and Voix intérieures (Inner Voices,

1837). The poems in these collections are rich in

language and intensely sexual, but they also carry a

trace of Hugo’s growing bitterness toward life.

Becoming disillusioned with the political and

cultural values of France, Hugo finally took a stand

212 Hugo, Victor

and became involved in republican politics. In

1841 he was elected to the prestigious Académie

Française, an achievement largely overshadowed a

few short years later by the death of his beloved

daughter Léopoldine. So distraught was Hugo over

her loss that it was a full decade before he began to

publish again. Instead, he devoted his time and en-

ergy to politics and the promotion of social justice.

In 1851, Napoleon III claimed complete power

in France. Fearing for his life as a result of his

openly republican beliefs, Hugo fled with Juliette

Drouet first to Brussels and then to the Channel Is-

lands. This exile, which was to last 20 years, pro-

vided him with the opportunity to produce some

of his best-known works including, most notably,

Les Misérables (1862; translated 1862). An epic tale

of social injustice told from the perspective of Jean

Valjean, imprisoned and labeled a criminal for life

because he stole a loaf of bread, the novel spectac-

ularly depicts the conditions of post-Napoleonic

France.

The political upheaval in France after Napoleon

III fell from power and the proclamation of the

Third Republic allowed Hugo to return to France

in 1870. Labeled a national hero, he was elected as

member of the National Assembly and then as a

senator of the Third Republic. The last two decades

of Hugo’s life, however, were marked by tragedy

that included the deaths of his sons, his wife, and

his mistress. He continued to write poetry and re-

mained active in politics until his health began to

fail 1878. Hugo died in Paris on May 22. His fu-

neral was a national event attended by 2 million

people. Hugo is buried in the Panthéon.

Other Works by Victor Hugo

The Distance, The Shadows: Selected Poems. Trans-

lated by Harry Guest. London: Anvil Press Poetry

in association with Wildwood House, 1981.

History of a Crime. Translated by Huntington Smith.

New York: T. Y. Crowell and Co., 1888.

The Last Day of a Condemned Man. Translated by

Geoff Woollen. London: Hesperus Press, 2003.

La Légende des Siécles. Mamaroneck, N.Y.: Gerard

Hamon, 1965.

Oeuvres Poetiques, Vol. 2 Avec: Les Châtiments et Les

Contemplations. New York: French and European

Publications, 1987.

Things Seen. Translated by David Kimber. London:

Oxford University Press, 1964.

Works about Victor Hugo

Frey, John Andrew. A Victor Hugo Encyclopedia. West-

port, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999.

Porter, Laurence M. Victor Hugo. Boston: Twayne,

1999.

Huysmans, Joris-Karl (Charles-Marie-

Georges Huysmans)

(1848–1907) poet,

novelist, essayist

Joris-Karl Huysmans, a writer and art critic first

associated with the NATURALIST movement

who became prominent in the French decadent

movement (see DECADENCE), was born in Paris on

February 5. His father died when Huysmans was

eight years old, a traumatic experience that would

influence his later works, many of which, such as

À Rebours (Against Nature, 1884), Là-bas (Down

There, 1891), and La Cathédrale (The Cathedral,

1898), trace the author’s conversion to Catholi-

cism through satanism.

Huysmans’s first work, Le Drageoir aux épices (A

Dish of Spices, 1874), was comprised of a series of

prose poems that were stylistically similar to those

of Charles

BAUDELAIRE. He published it at his own

expense, taking on the pseudonym of Joris-Karl

Huysmans. The work captured the attention of

writer Emile ZOLA and was followed by Huysmans’s

publication of several naturalistic novels, including

Marthe, histoire d’une fille (Martha, the story of a

girl, 1876), Les Soeurs Vatard (The Vatard Sisters,

1879), and En ménage (1881). He also served in the

Franco-Prussian War and wrote Sac au dos (1880)

about his experiences.

In 1877, Huysmans began to turn away from

naturalism. À Rebours explores decadence. This

misogynistic work, while important in its own

right, was also influential in the decadent move-

ment. Oscar Wilde refers to it as the “poisonous

Huysmans, Joris-Karl 213

yellow book” that causes the downfall of his fa-

mous protagonist Dorian Gray. The dark comedy

tells of a wealthy aristocrat, Des Esseinres, who

experiments with exotic, often erotic, pleasures to

the point at which he cannot face the real world for

fear that it will be mediocre in comparison. He

attempts to overcome nature by turning it into an

object of art.

Huysmans’s later novels, including Là-bas, are

highly autobiographical and trace the spiritual

search of a man named Durtal, who experiments

with satanism and attends a Black Mass. The work

went on to become prominent for its depiction of

satanic rites and for its mention of several well-

known occultists of the FIN DE SIÈCLE in Paris.

In the early 1890s, Huysmans experienced a cri-

sis of faith and returned to the Catholic Church.

His novels En route (1895) and La Cathédrale trace

his spiritual journey. Taken as a whole, his works

are both erotic and spiritual in nature and rich and

intoxicating in language. Huysmans remained a

staunch Roman Catholic until his death from can-

cer on May 12.

Another Work by Joris-Karl Huysmans

The Road from Decadence: From Brothel to Cloister:

Selected Letters of J. K. Huysmans. Translated by

Barbara Beaumont. Columbus: Ohio State Uni-

versity Press, 1989.

A Work about Joris-Karl Huysmans

Ridge, George Ross. Joris-Karl Huysmans. Boston:

Twayne, 1968.

Hwang Sun-won (1915–2001) poet, fiction

writer

Hwang Sun-won was born on March 26 in Tae-

dong, a county in modern-day North Korea. He

published his first poem in 1931 while he was still

in high school; by the end of the 1930s, he was reg-

ularly publishing poems and short stories. Gradu-

ating from Waseda University in Japan with a B.A.

in English in 1939, he published his first short-

story collection, The Swamp, in 1940. The volume

is largely comprised of nostalgic stories of country

folk that focus on childhood or the loss of inno-

cence. Hwang Sun-won wrote in the dialect of his

home province of Pyongannam and in a sparse

and minimalist style that would become his trade-

mark.

Hwang Sun-won is known for his reverence for

life and humanity and for maintenance of an

optimistic outlook even when writing critically. Al-

though he began his career with the sentimental

stories of rural Korea, the content of his work

changed as Korea moved through history. In 1945,

Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule

and the postliberation period provided the back-

drop for his first novel, Living with the Stars

(1945). The next year, Hwang Sun-won and his

family moved to Seoul, where he taught high

school.

Affected by the outbreak of civil war in 1950,

Hwang Sun-won wrote pieces, such as the novel

Trees on a Cliff (1960), that reflect upon the tragic

consequences of war for humanity. After the war

divided Korea into north and south, he wrote The

Descendants of Cain (1959), a novel featuring char-

acters on a farm and highlighting the class dispar-

ity between landowners and tenant farmers.

Although a traditional love story, it primarily crit-

icizes the Communist North Korean regime’s land-

reform policies. Eventually, Hwang Sun-won

turned his attention to the dehumanizing urban

areas, where an increasing number of Koreans had

settled.

Hwang Sun-won taught at Kyung Hee Univer-

sity from 1955 to 1993. He has received many

prizes and awards for his work, including the Free-

dom Literary Award in 1955 and the Republic of

Korea Literary Award in 1983. His son, HWANG

TONGGYU, carries on his literary legacy as a re-

spected poet.

Other Works by Hwang Sun-won

The Book of Masks. Translated by Martin Holman.

London: Readers International, 1976.

The Stars. Translated by Edward W. Poitras. Singa-

pore City: Heinemann Asia, 1980.

214 Hwang Sun-won

A Work about Hwang Sun-won

Epstein, Stephen J.“Elusive Narrators in Hwang Sun-

won.” In Korean Studies, 19 (1995).

Hwang Tonggyu (Hwang Tong-gyu)

(1938– ) poet

Hwang Tonggyu was born on April 9 in Seoul to

one of Korea’s most famous writers,

HWANG SUN-

WON

. He studied English literature at Seoul Na-

tional University, graduating in 1961, and

continued his graduate studies at Dongguk Uni-

versity. He completed further scholarship abroad,

first at Scotland’s Edinburgh University (1966–67)

and then at the University of Iowa (1970–71).

Hwang Tonggyu’s extensive training abroad af-

fected his writing style. He blends the lyricism of

traditional Korean poetry with Western mod-

ernism. As a result, his works are both contempla-

tive and critical. He published his first volume of

poems, One Fine Day, in 1961, followed by Sad

Songs in 1965, moving from the abstract to con-

crete examinations of daily life. By the time he re-

leased Snow That Falls on the Three Southern

Provinces in 1975, he had shifted from writing

about daily life to Korea’s social and political cli-

mate in quiet protest poems, such as “Song Under

Martial Law.” This shift evolved into a growing

search for self that often manifested itself in dark

and harrowing verse, such as “Lips.” These poems

in turn, evolved into a deep examination of meta-

physics and death (“Flight”).

Hwang Tonggyu continues to write, and his

works are widely translated into many languages,

especially English, German, and French. As a spe-

cialist in English-language poetry, he also translates

Western works such as Robert Lowell and T .S.

Eliot. He currently teaches English and American

poetry at Seoul National University. In 1987, he

served as an exchange professor at New York

University. He lives in Seoul with his wife and

two children.

Other Works by Hwang Tonggyu

Strong Winds at Mishi Pass. Groveport, Ohio: White

Pines Press, 2001.

Wind Burial: Selected Poems of Hwang Tonggyu. Lau-

renberg, N.C.: St. Andrew’s Press, 1990.

Hwang Tonggyu 215

216



Ibsen, Henrik (1828–1906) dramatist,

playwright, poet

Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien, Norway, into a

wealthy merchant family. While Ibsen was very

young, his father suffered financial losses, and the

family verged on poverty, no longer able to afford

Ibsen’s solid education. Young Ibsen developed a

deep distrust for society and engaged in drunken-

ness and gambling. He also fathered an illegitimate

child at the age of 18. To evade the social repercus-

sions of his relationship with a servant girl, he was

forced to support the child financially.

In 1850, Ibsen moved to Oslo to prepare for en-

trance into the university, but he failed to pass the

entrance examinations. Becoming involved in

radical politics, he joined a revolutionary group,

but after the group was broken up by the govern-

ment, Ibsen disengaged himself from politics for

the rest of his life. During these years in Oslo,

Ibsen began to write articles for various journals.

He also wrote poetry and a play, neither of which

was successful.

In 1851, Ibsen was appointed “stage poet” for a

small provincial theater in Bergen. Ibsen wrote

several early plays based on the history and folk-

lore of Norway. Although these works were by no

means Ibsen’s greatest efforts, the theater manage-

ment soon recognized Ibsen’s talent as a play-

wright. In 1852, the theater sent Ibsen on a study

tour to Denmark and Germany.

Returning to Norway in 1857, Ibsen was ap-

pointed director of the newly formed Norwegian

Theater in Oslo. After several unsuccessful produc-

tions, the theater went bankrupt. Ibsen was reap-

pointed to the Oslo Theater, where he attempted to

establish his reputation as a playwright with a se-

ries of historical dramas. They were poorly re-

ceived, and Ibsen was often publicly humiliated by

their criticism.

The Norwegian government provided Ibsen

with a grant to study in Italy and Germany. He left

in 1863 and lived abroad until 1891. Ibsen’s repu-

tation as a playwright was established in the late

1860s with production of several successful pieces,

including Brand (1866), in which a minister takes

his calling too seriously, and Peer Gynt (1867), in

which a man lacking in character finds redemption

in the love of a woman. In 1866, Ibsen was granted

an annual pension from the Norwegian govern-

ment. When Ibsen returned to Norway in 1891, he

was known as one of the world’s greatest drama-

tists.

Critical Analysis

Henrik Ibsen’s drama often focused on the realis-

tic psychological complexities of the individual,

and his work was much more focused on charac-

ter than on plot. One of the central conflicts in

Ibsen’s drama is between characters who seek to

realize themselves emotionally and spiritually and

the barriers that have been created by outdated

conventions of bourgeois society. Ibsen was often

seen as a progressive, liberal thinker by younger

generations outside Norway; in Norway, however,

Ibsen was generally viewed as a conservative play-

wright, writing against the tide of increasing pres-

sures of modern times. The themes of Ibsen’s

work are still debated by contemporary audiences

and scholars.

Peer Gynt (1867) tells the story of a young man

raised on the traditional fairy tales of Norway. Peer

leads an irresponsible life, drinking, lying, and ru-

ining young women’s reputations. The epic play

describes Peer’s fantastical journey through the

world. Peer becomes a slave dealer and a prophet

and finally finds himself alone, wandering through

the desert. When Peer returns home, he finds him-

self spiritually ruined because of the immoral life

that he led in the past. In the end, Peer is saved by

the love of Salvig, one of the women he aban-

doned. The play is a combination of psychological

realism and folklore. This popular play was set to

music by the famous Norwegian composer Edvard

Grieg (1843–1907).

Ibsen’s most famous work of realism, A Doll’s

House (1879), presents a tragic conflict in a mid-

dle-class family. Nora, the mother of three chil-

dren, is treated like a doll by her husband. Faced

with a familial conflict, Nora suddenly matures, re-

alizing that she needs to leave her family to fulfill

herself spiritually. The play created much contro-

versy throughout Europe: Ibsen’s representation of

a woman who leaves her family in pursuit of spiri-

tual fulfillment was seen as disturbing and uncon-

ventional. The realistic portrayal of the

middle-class household also hurt bourgeois senti-

mentality. Despite the criticism, the play caused

quite a sensation, and it toured Europe and Amer-

ica. The play remains Ibsen’s most widely read and

produced work.

Hedda Gabler (1890), the story of a woman who

cannot resolve a conflict between her inner self and

what society demands of her, was roundly con-

demned by many when it was first produced. A

contemporary critic, Hjalmer Boyeson, called her

“a complete perversion of womanhood.” But

Hedda is a character of tremendous complexity

who continues to intrigue audiences.

Ibsen’s most controversial play, however, was

Ghosts (1881), which tells the story of the wife of a

terrible drunk who sacrifices herself to the unde-

sirable marriage because of social conventions.

Their son is unknowingly engaged in a love affair

with his half-sister, an illegitimate child of the fa-

ther and a servant woman. The mother sends her

son away, hoping that he will change. The son re-

turns years later, the very picture of his father. He

begins to suffer from syphilis, which he inherited

from his father. The mother is faced with the diffi-

cult choice of administering poison to her son at

his request or watching him go through complete

psychological and physical degeneration. The sub-

ject of venereal disease was not seen as appropri-

ate for theater. The play was bitterly criticized by

the conservative segments of the public. Ghosts at-

tacks the accepted social conventions of marriage

and presents them as destructive to individual

happiness.

Although Henrik Ibsen’s talent was recognized

during his lifetime, today his works enjoy the

unanimous acclaim of the critics. Some of Ibsen’s

topics are still seen as controversial by many audi-

ences. Ibsen is probably among the most influen-

tial playwrights in the development of modern

drama. He anticipates the modern themes of alien-

ation and the smothering pressure to conform that

society exerts on individuals.

Other Works by Henrik Ibsen

Brand. Translated by Robert David McDonald. New

York: Theater Communications Group, 1997.

Four Great Plays: Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The

Wild Duck, A Doll’s House. Translated by R. Sharp.

New York: Bantam, 1981.

Ibsen, Henrik 217