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"I found out when I was about 9 or 10 that it was a lot of fun to write, so I started keeping a journal. I became a university professor because I wanted to be a writer and devote my life to literature. Every culture has its own identity, language and sensibility, which is expressed in the novel as an element of civilization. While talking about the Republic of Literature, I teach French literature and try to train students to be good readers. There are those who love literature and those who want to become writers - and sometimes originals as well, whom I encourage greatly. I also do a course on writing from a feminist perspective. The creation of the hero represents an aggressive, fighting reality that is dominant in its time. It is the heroism based on masculinity that makes the world monotonous, repetitive. The story has developed a lot to address all the changes that are happening in Korea, sometimes to the detriment of women.

Writing is a long-term project, a large part of one's life comes into play. The moment of writing is as privileged as it is intense, the buried memory reappears in a strange and inexplicable way. One experiences the most intense pain or love - or any other feeling - in a very exceptional way... Time stands still, everything in me is concentrated in writing. Korean society demands a lot from women, so their mental space is eaten up by a thousand things. So it is very important to have a space of one's own, to reflect on one's own life with a certain distance and to draw strength from it in the face of this rather masculine society which conveys many misunderstandings about women's activities. Often disqualified, their value is not fully recognized. Women have to put a lot of energy into writing to erase first everything that the male tradition has deposited in it, before giving it an intrinsically new and different character..."

Choe yun
Writer, Professor at Sogang University, Seoul, South Korea

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