First century-spanning anthology of modern Korean women’s literature hits shelves

The seven-volume 'Anthology of Korean Literature by Women Writers' is the first encyclopedic publication chronicling the century-spanning lineage of modern and contemporary women’s writing in Korea. Courtesy of Minumsa Publishing Group

“Anthology of Korean Literature by Women Writers,” the first encyclopedic publication chronicling the century-spanning lineage of modern and contemporary women’s writing in the country, has hit the shelves this week.

Compiled by the Research Group of Korean Women’s Literary History with a goal to reconstruct the historical canon of women’s writing from a female perspective, the seven-volume collection brings to light the fragmented literary achievements of female writers — from Korea’s first known feminist author Rha Hye-seok (1896-1948) to the International Booker Prize-winning Han Kang.

“Within the established male-centric literary history in Korea, the existence of women writers and their work has long been entirely 커뮤니티 neglected, marginalized or treated as secondary in value,” said Kim Yang-sun, professor of writing at Hallym University and a member of the research group, at a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday.

“For instance, it wasn’t until the late 1990s, when a wave of feminist criticism began to emerge in the country, that visionary authors from the ‘20s like Rha and Kim Myeong-sun came into the limelight.”

The anthologies of women’s literature that did manage to get published against this backdrop were largely limited to specific time periods, such as the Japanese colonial era (1910-45) or the postwar ’60s, and with an exclusive focus on narrative genres.

“We believed it was necessary to properly trace and archive the overlooked history of women’s literature spanning diverse eras and genres that have escaped dominant modern literary discourse,” she added, likening the project to the Korean counterpart of “The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women.”

The result is an extensive collection encompassing not only novels, prose, poems and play scripts, but also declarations, letters, diary entries and work memoirs from the late 19th century to the 1990s.

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