Korean Literature and Gender

Throughout most of the twentieth century,gender norms in Korea were rooted in the neoConfucian mindset of the Joseon Dynasty.Women were considered to be inferior to men, and theirroles were limited to the confines of the home. Such ideaswere prominent in literature too, as seen in the “wisemother/good wife” trope and the idolization of motherfigures that portrayed women as social “others” rather thanautonomous beings. Images of chastity, virtue, and sacrificewere depicted as the female ideal. In particular, women werenever shown to be beings with sexual independence.Female selfhood and gender consciousness beganin earnest in Korean literature around the 1970s, whenthe transition from a traditional agricultural society toa capitalist industrial society was well underway. Thenumber of women with higher education rapidly expanded,and their voices became stronger and began to diversifyexponentially. It was around this time that assertive anddaring poetry by women poets came onto the literary scene.In fact, there were already bold women writers inthe early years of modern Korean literature, around the1920s, and their contributions must not be overlooked.Writers like Na Hye-seok and Kim Myeong-sun expressedfierce individuality, and their creative work spoke of theirfree spirit. They stood against the traditions of the time,heralding free love while challenging the restraints ofchastity solely imposed on women and working to teardown the false consciousness of the “wise mother/goodwife” trope. But in the Korean context they were too farahead of their time. The limitations of colonial society andthe prejudices of their male contemporaries plunged theirlives into failure and tragedy. Still, their emergence andimpassioned expression holds significant meaning for us all.In the years that followed the turbulence of liberation(1945) and civil war (1950-1953), political unrest, foreigninfluence, and stark poverty meant that women were theobjects of both sexual and labor exploitation, but this wasalso when the idea of woman as an autonomous self was ableto emerge into the mainstream.In the 1980s, as resistance to the brutal militarygovernment and longing for democratization grew,feminism became a central issue for many Korean women.This interest in feminism extended to issues around thedestruction of nature, pollution, ecology, and the humanbody. In the 1990s, this matured into an eco-feministmovement. Urbanization and industrial civilization broughtabout the dispersion of the family, opening the way for freerdiscourse on homosexuality, but also bringing with it a morehyperactive consumption of the female image in popularculture that was increasingly sexualized and commercialized.Coming into the 2000s, topics such as immigrantwomen, multiculturalism, transgender awareness, andgendered violence all received varying degrees of attention.It is also noteworthy that a group of 138 women writerswho had long been speaking out about these issues usedtheir writing to make themselves heard with the publicationof the anthology With No References in 2017. While therehad already been some gains made by a homegrown Twitterhashtag movement, it was around this time that the global#MeToo movement began to cause huge waves in Koreansociety.When it comes to issues of gender, Korean literaturehas reached the present day through repeated gains andlosses and changes in awareness. Still, the movement that isongoing today gives cause for hope. This is a time of greatanticipation of what new worlds can now flourish in Koreanliterature with genuine selfhood, individuality, and morenuanced gender consciousness. 

Moon Chung-hee

Poet

Chair Professor, Dongguk University