Yun Humyong

In this Korean name, the family name is Yun.

Yun Hu-myong^[a] (January 17, 1946 – May 8, 2025) was a South Korean writer who published poetry, novels, and essays.^[2]

Yun Humyong
Born	Yun Sang-gyu (1946-01-17)January 17, 1946 Gangneung, Gangwon, US-occupied Korea
Died	May 8, 2025(2025-05-08) (aged 79)
Language	Korean
Nationality	South Korean
Alma mater	Yonsei
Korean name
Hangul	윤후명
Hanja	尹厚明
Revised Romanization	Yun Hu-myeong
McCune–Reischauer	Yun Humyŏng
Birth name
Hangul	윤상규
Hanja	尹尙奎
Revised Romanization	Yun Sang-gyu
McCune–Reischauer	Yun Sanggyu
Website
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Background

Yun was born in the city of Gangneung in Gangwon, South Korea, under the name Yun Sang-gyu. He received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from Yonsei University.^[3]

Yun died on May 8, 2025, at the age of 79.^[4]

Work

Although he was one of the major Korean writers of the 1980s, Yun's fiction maintains some distance from the dominant trend in Korean fiction of 1980s—the concern with realism as an effective literary tool in rendering contemporary social situations. Instead, what supports Yun's fictional world are individual desire and the power of fantasy. The archetypal situation in Yun's works is that of a man suffering from a sense of ontological lack; deadened by routines of daily life, he immerses himself in fantasy or travel in order to secure what life in the real world has denied him—meaning of existence and genuine engagement with another human being. Often this search hinges on the protagonist's ardent yearning for a woman. The fantasy cannot last, but it is the ceaseless movement away from the vulgar reality that has the potential to resurrect the self from existential insecurity, loneliness, or despair. Such romantic individualism is heightened by the sensitive, lyrical style of writing that reflects Yun's poetic sensibilities.^[2]

Yun's novels deal with the relationship between fantasy and reality in individuals' lives. In a similar fashion, his poetry deals with the connection between the profound and the mundane.

Books

• Expert Archer, poetry, (1977)
• Don Juan's Love, novel, (1983)
• Resurrecting Birds, novel, (1985)
• There Is No Ape, novel, (1989)
• To Stars, novel, (1990)
• You, My Bad Darling, essays, (1990)
• The Generation Without Promise, novel, (약속없는 세대)

Awards

His poems were awarded the Kyonghyang Shinmun Literature prize in 1967, Then in 1979, he was awarded the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award for his short stories in 1979. In the 1980s, he received several awards for his fiction.^[5] In 1995, he was awarded the Yi Sang Literary Prize for White Boat.