The Life and Works of Korean Poet Kim Myng-sun

The Life and Works of Korean Poet Kim My ng-sun offers an introduction to Korea's first modern woman writer to publish a collection of creative works, Kim My ng-sun (1896-ca. 1954).

Autorentext

Jung Ja Choi is a lecturer in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. She received her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University and previously taught at Dartmouth College and Washington University in St. Louis.

Klappentext

The Life and Works of Korean Poet Kim My ng-sun offers an introduction to Korea's first modern woman writer to publish a collection of creative works, Kim My ng-sun (1896-ca. 1954).

Zusammenfassung

The Life and Works of Korean Poet Kim Myng-sun offers an introduction to Korea's first modern woman writer to publish a collection of creative works, Kim Myng-sun (1896ca. 1954). Despite attempts by male contemporaries to assassinate her character, Kim was an outspoken writer and an early feminist, confronting patriarchal Korean society in essays, plays, poems, and short stories.

This volume is the first to offer a detailed analysis in English of Kim's poetry. The poems examined in this volume can be considered early twentieth-century versions of #MeToo literature, mirroring the harrowing account of her sexual assault, and also subversive challenges to traditional institutions, dealing with themes such as romantic free love, same-sex love, single womanhood, and explicit female desire and passion. The Life and Works of Korean Poet Kim Myng-sun restores a long-neglected woman writer to her rightful place in the history of Korean literature, shedding light on the complexity of women's lives in Korea and contributing to the growing interest in modern Korean women's literature in the West.

Inhalt

Introduction

Part I. The Life of Kim My ng-sun

1. Early Years and Literary Activities

2. Shameful Stories: Rumors, Scandals, Slander

3. Disappearance, Proclaimed Death, and Rediscovery of Kim My ng-sun's Works

Part II. The Works of Kim My ng-sun

4. Love's Betrayal and #MeToo: "The Flower-Dream of the Morning Dew"

5. The Mother as Protection and Muse: "The First Dream of T'ansil" and Other Poems

6. In Her Own Words: "Half of My Life in Verse"

7. Poems on Y nae or Romantic Love

Conclusion