Ha Ilji
1955– · Korean novelist, author of the Racetrack novel series
Haïlji (Ha Ilji in English) is a South Korean writer born in 1955, best known for the "Racetrack" novel series, which sparked a major controversy among Korean critics. He earned a degree in Creative Writing from Jungang University and taught high school until 1983, when he moved to France. There he obtained a master's degree from the University of Poitiers and a doctorate from the University of Limoges. He returned to Korea in 1989.
His debut, The Road to Racetracks (1990), is a partly autobiographical novel about an intellectual newly back from France who struggles against the conservative values and hypocrisies of Korean society while his inner and outer worlds gradually collapse. It brought him immediate fame. Over the next three years he published four more novels: Racetracks at Crossroads, For Racetracks, An Alder Tree at the Racetracks and What Happened at the Racetracks. Their innovative approach to life's contradictions divided critics and drew him into a dispute with conservative literary commentators known as the "Racetrack Controversy". His later works take on a fantastic, dreamlike quality and have earned him a loyal readership.
Many of his novels were adapted for film or theatre, which has earned him recognition as a contributor to the development of modern Korean cinema. He is known chiefly as a novelist, though he has also written poetry.