Sang-sup Lee (; 1937 – August 2022) was a South Korean scholar of English literature, lexicographer, educationalist, and translator. He was a professor emeritus in the English Language and Literature Department at Yonsei University, who contributed to "establishing literary criticism as a systematic study of the humanities in South Korea"Joon-hwan Kim and Kyung-deok Lee, "A Happy Humanist 'Tied to Letters': Life and Studies of Sang-sup Lee, A Literary Scholar ['글자에 매인' 즐거운 인문학자: 영문학자 이상섭의 삶과 학문]," The Dong Bang Hak Chi [동방학지] no. 158 (2012): 444. and implemented the concept of "corpus" in the South Korean dictionary compilation methodology.Byung-seo Gongl, "Sang-sup Lee, an Honorary Professor of Yonsei University, and Others Have Been Selected as Persons of Distinguished Service to Hangeul [한글유공자에 이상섭 연대 명예교수 등 선정]," Yonhap News Agency, 30 September 2010. https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20100930172800005. Also, Lee translated Western literary-critical terminology into appropriate Korean words, reflecting the tone and nuance of each language. For example, he rendered Viktor Shklovsky's concept of "defamiliarization" into a pure Korean expression—"낯설게 하기" ("making it unfamiliar")Sang-sup Lee, Method of Literary Research: An Overview for Korean Application [문학연구의 방법: 그 한국적 적용을 위한 개관] (Seoul: Tamgudang [탐구당], 1972).—without using Hanja or Chinese characters, which were often used to translate foreign literary critical terms. Given that Hanja has been incorporated into the Korean language since the Gojoseon period (400 BCE) and is still routinely used in South Korea despite the creation of Hangul (Korean alphabet; 1443), Lee's rejection of using it in his translation contributed to reviving the authentic national language of Korea.
Lee wrote and edited more than two dozen books on literary subjects, of which some representative ones are Methods of Literary Research: An Overview for Korean Application (문학연구의 방법: 그 한국적 적용을 위한 개관, 1972), Literary Criticism as Close Reading: Selected Critical Texts by Sang-sup Lee (자세히 읽기로서의 비평: 이상섭 평론집, 1988), History of British-American Criticism 1, 2, and 3 (영미 비평사 1,2,3, 1985⎼1996), and Discontents about History and Literature (역사에 대한 불만과 문학, 2002). In addition, he compiled Korean linguistic and historical corpus into several volumes of dictionaries, including Yonsei Korean Dictionary (연세 한국어사전, 1998), the first Korean dictionary made digitally, and the Yonsei Dong-A Elementary Korean Dictionary (연세 동아 초등 국어사전, 2002), the Korean dictionary for elementary school students.
Such endeavor to lay the linguistic foundation of Korean humanities beyond English literature was crucial for some of Lee's award winnings, including the 1999 Oesol Award from the Korean Association of Oesol,"Sang-sup Lee and Sung-ki Jin Won the Oesol Award [외솔상 수상자에 이상섭.진성기씨]," The JoongAng, 13 October 1999. https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/3825870#home. the 2010 Order of Cultural Merit from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in South Korea, the 2017 Inchon Award from the Inchon Memorial Foundation,"2017 Inchon Award Winner: Sang-sup Lee [2017 인촌상 수상자: 이상섭]," The Inchon Memorial Foundation, 2017. http://www.inchonmemorial.co.kr/award.php?idx=232&classify=6&year=2017. and the 2017 Yoo Yeong Translation Award for translating the Complete Works of Shakespeare for the first time in Korea.Mi-na Im, "Professor Sang-sup Lee Won the 11th Yoo Yeong Translation Award [제11회 유영번역상에 이상섭 교수]," Yonhap News Agency, 21 November 2017. https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20171121162000005.
Considering Lee's long-standing, deep interest in the language, Joon-hwan Kim, professor of English literature at Yonsei University, regards one of Lee's autobiographical phrases—"I was tied to letters"— as an expression that compresses Lee's academic achievements.Joon-hwan Kim and Kyung-deok Lee, "A Happy Humanist 'Tied to Letters': Life and Studies of Sang-sup Lee, A Literary Scholar ['글자에 매인' 즐거운 인문학자: 영문학자 이상섭의 삶과 학문]," The Dong Bang Hak Chi [동방학지] no. 158 (2012): 445. Lee himself also referred to himself as "a scholar committed to the Korean alphabet" ("한글주의자"), emphasizing his great interest in linguistic theories.Sang-sup Lee, Foreword, Literary Criticism as a Close Reading: Selected Criticisms by Sang-sup Lee [자세히 읽기로서의 비평: 이상섭 평론집], by Sangsup Lee (Seoul: Moonji Publishing [문학과지성사], 1988), iv⎼v.
Life
Early life Sang-sup Lee was born in Pyongyang, now the capital of North Korea, during the Japanese occupation in 1937.Joon-hwan Kim and Kyung-deok Lee, "A Happy Humanist 'Tied to Letters': Life and Studies of Sangsup Lee, A Literary Scholar ['글자에 매인' 즐거운 인문학자: 영문학자 이상섭의 삶과 학문]," The Dong Bang Hak Chi [동방학지] no. 158 (2012): 446. Following the emancipation of Korea in 1945, Lee's family moved to South Korea, and in 1956, Lee entered Yonsei University's Department of English Language and Literature.Joon-hwan Kim and Kyung-deok Lee, "A Happy Humanist 'Tied to Letters': Life and Studies of Sangsup Lee, A Literary Scholar ['글자에 매인' 즐거운 인문학자: 영문학자 이상섭의 삶과 학문]," The Dong Bang Hak Chi [동방학지] no. 158 (2012): 447⎼50.
Upon completing his master's degree in 1962, Lee became a faculty member at Yonsei University, but the dean strongly advised him to study for a doctoral degree in the United States.Joon-hwan Kim and Kyung-deok Lee, "A Happy Humanist 'Tied to Letters': Life and Studies of Sangsup Lee, A Literary Scholar ['글자에 매인' 즐거운 인문학자: 영문학자 이상섭의 삶과 학문]," The Dong Bang Hak Chi [동방학지] no. 158 (2012): 456. Thus, in 1964, Lee entered the Ph.D. program of Emory University, specializing in Renaissance literature. His doctoral dissertation, titled "A Study in the Varieties of Literary Opinion in the Elizabethan Age," encompassed theories about the nature of poetry, Elizabethan reactions to the problem of the use and abuse of poetry, and Elizabethan ideas concerning style and poetic rules.
Career In 1967, Lee worked as an assistant professor at Murray State University, and in 1971, he became a full professor at Yonsei University.Joon-hwan Kim and Kyung-deok Lee, "A Happy Humanist 'Tied to Letters': Life and Studies of Sang-sup Lee, A Literary Scholar ['글자에 매인' 즐거운 인문학자: 영문학자 이상섭의 삶과 학문]," The Legacy of Korean Humanities and Yonsei [한국 인문학의 맥과 연세], ed. HK+ Yonsei Public Humanities Center (Seoul: Hyean [혜안], 2014), 360-61. In 1979, Lee became the chair of the Department of English Language and Literature at Yonsei and later served as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts of the same university from August 1993 to July 1995. In 2002, Lee retired as a professor emeritus at Yonsei University.
In the meantime, he was a research fellow at Harvard University from September 1976 to June 1977, a visiting scholar at Virginia University from September 1984 to February 1985, and also at UCLA from September 1999 to February 2000.
Other career milestones of Lee include the President of the English Language and Literature Association of Korea (1997–99), the President of the Asian Association for Lexicography (1999–2001),"Sang-sup Lee [이상섭]," Moonji Publishing, 2018. http://moonji.com/bookauth/732/. and the Director of Yonsei University's Korean Dictionary Compilation Center (1989⎼93; 1995⎼2002)."History," Institute of Language & Information Studies, 2020. https://devcms.yonsei.ac.kr/ilis/detail01/history03.do
Work
Korean meta-criticism In 1976, Sang-sup Lee compiled contemporary Western critical terms for South Korean scholars in A Glossary of Literary Criticism (). In this book, "which has been a steady seller in South Korea, Lee added his own critical and theoretical reinterpretation of each term, considering the local standpoint of the far East Asian literary culture."Chul-hoon Jung, "Professor Sang-sup Lee, Author of A Glossary of Literary Criticism, Retired [정년퇴임한 '문학비평 용어사전' 저자 이상섭교수]," Kukmin Ilbo, 14 December 2001. https://entertain.naver.com/read?oid=005&aid=0000084447. For instance, when he explained "rhyme", he mentioned the rhymes of Korean and Chinese poetries along with Western examples.Sang-sup Lee, A Glossary of Literary Criticism [문학비평용어사전] (Seoul: Minumsa [민음사], 1976), 10⎼11.
Other early works of Lee compare, contrast, and synthesize different criticism methodologies. One example is Method of Literary Research: An Overview for Korean Application (1972), where Lee categorized diverse critical approaches into historicism, formalism, socialism, ethicism, psychologism, and mythological criticism; and objects of literary analysis as mimesis, reader-response, expression, and structure. Lee saw the latter classification regarding literature as a "trans-historical" standard, asserting "the immutability of the system" in Historical Development of Literary Theory (문학이론의 역사적 전개, 1975).
In the mid-1980s through the 1990s, Lee published History of British-American Criticism 1,2,3 (영미비평사 1,2,3). In this series, Lee divided the discourses of literary criticism into three parts: Renaissance and Neoclassicism (1530⎼1800), British romanticism and Victorian aestheticism (1800⎼1900), and New Criticism. This diachronic trilogy is said to "have revived the various "voices" of even uncelebrated critics and writers, instead of summarizing the thoughts of few well-known ones, as Lee view[ed] criticism as 'a discussion between contemporary people rather than an expression of individual opinions.'""Book Review: A Critical History of British-American Literature in Korean Style [<책> 한국식 영미문학 비평사]," Yonhap News Agency, 12 November 1996. https://n.news.naver.com/mnews/article/001/0004119180?sid=103. Lee emphasized in their prefaces that English literature study in South Korea should autonomously develop as a "South Korean" discipline that "South Koreans teach South Koreans in the Korean language."
New critical education In the 1980s, Sang-sup Lee introduced a New Critical studying method in South Korean academia, which closely reads the literary content rather than paying much attention to its socio-historical contexts.Joon-hwan Kim and Kyung-deok Lee, "A Happy Humanist 'Tied to Letters': Life and Studies of Sangsup Lee, A Literary Scholar ['글자에 매인' 즐거운 인문학자: 영문학자 이상섭의 삶과 학문]," The Dong Bang Hak Chi [동방학지] no. 158 (2012): 460. This pedagogical style was influenced by his former career as an assistant professor at Murray State University in the 1960s.Joon-hwan Kim and Kyung-deok Lee, "A Happy Humanist 'Tied to Letters': Life and Studies of Sangsup Lee, A Literary Scholar ['글자에 매인' 즐거운 인문학자: 영문학자 이상섭의 삶과 학문]," The Dong Bang Hak Chi [동방학지] no. 158 (2012): 458. At that time, he mainly taught the course "Introduction to Literature," using An Approach to Literature (1952) as his textbook. In a 2012 interview, Lee recalled that he had found this work's text-centric questions were effective in understanding literature and that he was determined to bring it to South Korea.Joon-hwan Kim and Kyung-deok Lee, "A Happy Humanist 'Tied to Letters': Life and Studies of Sangsup Lee, A Literary Scholar ['글자에 매인' 즐거운 인문학자: 영문학자 이상섭의 삶과 학문]," The Dong Bang Hak Chi [동방학지] no. 158 (2012): 458⎼59.