Na Dohyang
1902–1926
Biography
Na Dohyang (나도향, 1902–1926) was a Korean novelist born in Seoul, in the Cheongpa district near Yongsan. His family name was Na and his given name Gyeong-son, but he is known by the art name Dohyang and also wrote under the pen name Na Bin. He finished at Paejae school in 1919. He then went to Japan to study English literature, but lack of money brought him home, and in 1920 he taught at an elementary school in Andong. He died young, at twenty-four, of lung disease.
In 1922 his story Youth's Days (젊은이의 시절) appeared in the first issue of Baekjo, the magazine that gave its name to a romantic group of writers around Yi Sang-hwa, Hyeon Jin-geon and Park Jong-hwa. He was still a teenager, and his serial novel Hwanhui (환희) in the Dong-a Ilbo brought him wide attention. His early work is sentimental and romantic. From about 1923 his stories turned to poverty and class, and they took on a more realist manner. In July 1925 his story The Mute Samnyong (벙어리 삼룡이) appeared in the first issue of the magazine Yeomyeong, and Korean critics count it among the best short stories of modern Korean literature. Water Mill (물레방아) and Mulberry (뽕) belong to the same line of work.
The book on this site is 어머니 (Mother). The Korean article's list of his main works names Water Mill, Mulberry, The Mute Samnyong and Byeolreul angeodeun ulji nalgeol, and 어머니 does not appear in that list, so this page does not describe its contents. Readers who want to see how his style changed should read it alongside the stories about poverty and class, and judge it from the text itself.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
어머니
by 나도향
A young man named Chun-u, home again in his family's house, lies awake in the summer morning and begins to turn over his life and the people close to him. Na Do-hyang's novel of a household and a mother's place in it is written in the emotional manner of the 1920s.
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.