| Time | Part | Details |
16:00-17:30 |
Part I |
About the author : Serang |
Part II |
Chung Serang and Fifty People |
Serang (b. 1984) is a Korean novelist. She made her literary debut in 2010 in the SF/fantasy magazine Fantastique. She started out in the world of genre literature before venturing into Korea’s mainstream literary circles. As a writer, she takes the position of “a seam joining two pieces of fabric together.” Her aim is to establish a new platform of communication in the middle ground, blurring “the boundaries between pure literature and genre fiction.” This is particularly evident in her writing style. Chung often places ordinary people in the most extraordinary circumstances, erasing the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Her work explores the unexceptional exceptionalism of kind-hearted, altruistic people who care for those around them. She is the author of Fifty People, See You on the Rooftop, You Can Have My Voice, My Only One on Earth, School Nurse Ahn Eun-young, and From Sisun Onward. She received the Changbi Prize in Fiction in 2013 and the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award in 2017.
This unique novel features no fewer than fifty characters. It garnered a lot of attention at the time of its online serialization through Changbi Publishers’ blog in 2016. Fifty People documents a series of events that take place around a hospital involving people who are both loosely and strongly connected. Chung explains, “Each individual may only resemble a faint color, but the stories of each individual are eventually pieced together.” The author does not merely depict a wide range of characters. Rather, the fifty people that we meet in the novel provide insight into today’s world, delving into such issues as damage caused by humidifier disinfectants, discrimination against sexual minorities, inter-floor noise, female autonomy, sinkhole accidents, and overloaded trucks. The result is a vivid portrait of Korean society in 2016. With a healthy sense of harmony and balance devoid of false optimism or tragic despair, Fifty People gives voice to the joys and sorrows of everyday life.