The Life and Works of Korean Poet Kim My¿ng-sun

The Flower Dream of a Woman Born Too Soon
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-032-36593-0
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 246 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 515 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature

The Life and Works of Korean Poet Kim Myong-sun offers an introduction to Korea’s first modern woman writer to publish a collection of creative works, Kim Myong-sun (1896–ca. 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 Myong-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.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Choi, Jung Ja

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Part I. The Life of Kim Myong-sun

1. Early Years and Literary Activities

2. Shameful Stories: Rumors, Scandals, Slander

3. Disappearance, Proclaimed Death, and Rediscovery of Kim Myong-sun’s Works

Part II. The Works of Kim Myong-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 Yonae or Romantic Love

Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

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.