Professor An Soo Hyun has been awarded the Criticism Prize at the 33rd Busan Literary Awards, a distinction that recognises his sustained contribution to literary criticism. The award is particularly significant in acknowledging Professor An’s long-standing engagement with the realities of regional literature, while also affirming his broader humanistic approach to the interpretation of Korean literature.
At the heart of this recognition is his collection of literary criticism, 《A Journey through Time in Language》. In this volume, Professor An brings together a wide-ranging body of thought on literary tradition and the present, Korean and East Asian literature, and the complex relationship between literary creation and translation. The award may therefore be understood as an important affirmation of the critical path he has pursued over many years.
As its title suggests, 《A Journey through Time in Language》 explores how language is remembered across time, how it is transformed, and how it comes to live again in new forms of literature. Focusing on fixed-form poetry, including sijo and haiku, as well as classical and modern literature, translation, and intercultural exchange, Professor An rereads the meanings accumulated within literary tradition from the perspective of the present.
Rather than treating the literature of the past as a fixed inheritance, he approaches it as a living literary resource that continues to acquire new meaning through the language and sensibility of the present. This understanding of literature as a dialogue across time constitutes the central critical vision of 《A Journey through Time in Language》 and lies at the heart of Professor An Soo Hyun’s literary criticism.
