Pak, Sang-nyung

Park Sang-ryoong (August 26, 1940 to July 1, 2017) was a South Korean novelist and short story writer. His most famous work is A Study of Death (1975), a novel which describes forty days leading to the death of an unnamed monk. He refers to his work as "Japseol" (잡설) or a talk on everything because his writings all form a large metaphysical musing on the nature of humanity, transcendence, and death. He has a reputation for being a formidable and challenging writer not only because of his exhaustive range of symbolism and allusion, but also because of his complex, experimental style. The work was adapted to film and went to the 1996 Cannes Film Festival where it was shortlisted for Critics Choice. As of 2012, he has published five novels, three short story collections, and one essay collection and is considered one of the most notable Korean authors of his generation.