New anthology continues lineage of ‘women’s literature’ in Korean literature history of 100 years

Participants answer questions at a press conference commemorating the publication of an anthology of Korean women\'s literature on July 9. Yonhap News

"In front of the history of Korean literature/ which is patterned like clean wallpaper/ I am a rat flea/ a female rat flea." Published in 1989, Kim Seung-hee's "Korean Literary History Without Me" criticizes the history of Korean literature for its exclusion of women writers and declares her identity as a female writer. Widely used for a time after the 1930s, the term "female literature" lumped women writers into the group of "female" and marginalized women's literature as a specific genre.

Despite having a long tradition, "An Anthology of Korean Women's Literature," a compilation of Korean women's literature that has not been fully recognized for its historical genealogy and literary value in literary history, has been published after 12 years of research. Korean literature researchers Kim Yang-sun (Hallym University), Kim Eun-ha (Kyung Hee University), Lee Sun-ok (Sookmyung Women's University), English literature researchers Lee Myung-ho (Kyung Hee University), Lee Hee-won (Seoul National University of Science and Technology), and poetry researcher Lee Kyung-soo (Jung-Ang University) formed the "Women's Literature History Research Group" in 2012 with critical mind, "Why do we not have subversive women's literature collections such as ‘The Madwoman in the Attic’ and ‘Norton Anthology of Literature by Women.’"

The anthology covers 100 years of history from the early modern period to the 1990s. The collection includes works written by Lee So-sa and Kim So-sa, who were in the noble class during the enlightenment period, and works by Choi Seung-ja, Eun Hee-kyung and Han Kang in the 1990s. At a press conference to commemorate the publication held at the Roh Moo-hyun Civic Center in Jongno-gu, Seoul on July 9, Kim Yang-sun, a professor at Hallym University, explained the meaning of the publication, saying, "There were previous collections of women's literature, but they were limited to certain periods and genres." She added, "Since the early modern era, women have already emerged as subjects of writing in the public sphere. Women's writing has had characteristics in every era, sometimes changing, and in some ways being sustained. I hope readers will experience that it is by no means a formidable product."

Beyond institutionalized literary genres, such as poetry, novels, and plays, the anthology covers various writings, including magazine's founding history, declarations, letters, reader posts, and labor handwriting. As a result, the origin of modern women's literature begins in 1898, 20 years earlier than previously thought. In existing literature history, Na Hye-seok's short story "Gyeong-hee (1918)" is often cited as the origin of women's literature. In this anthology, it is the readers’ contribution “Women's Suggestion to Open School (1898)” that advocates the establishment of a school for women. Professor Kim Yang-sun said, "It is very important for women to present their writings in the public sphere in their own voice," and explained, "The history of women's literature and the collection of women's literature in the U.S. also begin with Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ or letters from women writers."

The anthology also includes works that have not been considered as classics, but rather shed new light on them from a female perspective. For example, Park Hwa-sung (1904-1988) is known for her novel "The Sewer Works (1932)," a tendentious novel based on socialist ideas, but the anthology also includes "Chuseok Eve (1925)," which depicts the discrimination faced by female workers.

Works that have received little attention in existing literary histories have also been unearthed. Lee Jung-ho (1930-2016)'s "Zanyang" and Park Soon-nyeo (1928-)'s "I Love You" are representative. "Lee Jung-ho is very unique in that she depicts the structure of war as masculine carnivalesque, where women are exchanged and sacrificed, and Park Soon-nyeo is a very important writer in that she looks at Korean history from the perspective of a foreigner in the 1960s," said Professor Kim Eun-ha. Women's literature, which had been relegated to the periphery of literary history, entered the center of Korean literature in the 1990s, reshaping the literary scene. This was the result of 100 years of persistence in making their voices heard. "The many women writers who emerged in the 1990s not only increased in number, but also became the core of the literature of the era," said Professor Lee Myung-ho. "If there was a declaration in the Anglo-American community that women's literature was removed from the position of minority in the 1970s, this period was in the 1990s in Korea."

The book funding, which was launched ahead of its release, attracted a lot of readers' attention. Although a set costs 104,000 won, 295 people participated in the funding. "It was more than twice as good as expected," said Park Hye-jin, head of Minumsa's Korean literature team. "These works seem to be paying off as a large number of female writers appeared in the 1990s and the number of female literature readers exploded since the 2000s."

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.