Author’s death rekindles obscenity debate in South Korea

By Kang Hyun-kyung

South Korean author and professor Ma Kwang-soo, who was found dead on September 5, is still at the centre of controversy for his watershed fictional work Happy Sara. The book was banned in 1992 for “depraving and corrupting” the younger generation. In the same year, the court sentenced Ma to an eight-month jail term, suspended for two years, for “creating and disseminating obscene materials” in the guise of a literary work.

A posthumous debate about the author continues about whether he was an intellectual who had lived way ahead of his time and was consequently persecuted, or an unrepentant social outcast.

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Happy Sara, published in 1991, described in great detail the life of college student Sara, who follows her sexual desires and explores various unconventional sexual relationships. Her affair with a married professor, sex with her girlfriend, and frequent one-night stands were explicitly described in the fiction with the frequent use of words deemed as unfit for publishing.

Ma, a former professor of literature at Yonsei University and the author of 60 books, including essays, poetry collections and fiction, was found dead in an apparent suicide at his home in Seoul. Those who are familiar with him said he suffered depression and had difficulty making ends meet after retirement because he spent all his fortune on his legal fights.

His death has sparked heated debate about the banned book, as well as sales for his other books.

According to South Korea’s largest offline bookstore Kyobo and largest online bookstore Aladin, more than 1,500 copies of his books have been sold since his death – a surprising figure, considering only one or two were sold per month before his death.