Introduction

Introduction: Korean Literature, Then and Now JonathanC. Stalling& Eun-GwiChung SPECIAL SECTION In Yoo Hui-sok's article "Promoting Korean Literature?" (page 53), he questions our ability to assert the existence of a single "modern Korean literature." He notes the radical differences between two very distinct Korean nation-states?North Korea (dprk) and South Korea (rok)?while simultaneously offering examples of contemporarywriting that may point us toward a "(re)unified" sense ofwhat constitutes modern Korean literature. Yet also implicit in that question mark is the acknowledgment of how much remains forEnglish readers to learn about the richness of contemporary Korean literature. Understanding the full arc ofmodern Korean lit erature's genuine complexitieswill require a brief look back at some basic contours of the century leading up to thepresentmoment. The modern period ofKorean literature can be said tohave begun toward the end ofwhat is known as theKorean Enlightenment (1896-1910), yet due to Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910, most of Korea's early modernist writing took place under the continual repression of imperial ist rule that lasted until the end ofWorld War II. Although seriously hampered by Japan's explicit political and cultural oppression, which brutally suppressed Korean language, literature, and cul ture,Korean modernism took root during this period and even flourished at times. The first such period began a few years after the crushing crackdown on the Korean Independence Move ment (1919), as Japan sought to improve itspublic relations both insideKorea and internationallyby easing restrictions on publications and allowing the establishment of literarygroups. The decades thatfollowed saw the founding ofnumerous liter arymagazines and the rise of popular poets like Kim Sow?l (1902-34), whose poem "Azaleas" is stillmemorized throughoutKorea today, and highmodernists such as Yi Sang (1910-37),whose cosmopolitan and sophisticatedmodernist poetics were unmatched inhis day and set thebar very high forexperimental writing in the twenty-first century.Yet this earlymodernist period also saw thegenesis of theKorean Artists Proletarian Fed eration,which pursued an explicitly socialist agen da. Although the group's writings were banned in South Korea until after the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, this trend toward political solidarity (espe cially thatof the left)remained amajor featureof modern Korean literature until the 1990s. Most Americans are aware of the tumult caused by both the Japanese colonial period and the brutality of the Korean War (1950-53), but few are knowledgeable about the threedecades of domestic political oppression initiatedby theU.S. Army military government in Korea (usamgik), which worked hard to suppress leftistactivity.A succession of U.S.-backed dictatorial governments (known as the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and FifthRepublics of Korea) continued to severely suppress leftistactivity,culminating in thebrutal massacre of hundreds of students who partook in theKwangju Uprising during the 1980s. These three decades saw the rise of explicitly politi cal literarygroups such as theNational Litera tureMovement, and most writers publicly allied themselves with oppositional politics or political groups. Two poets whose work exemplifies thepower of poetry in these tumultuous decades are Kim Chiha and Ko ?n. Though other poets likeKim Suy?ng managed to capture the spiritof theyears directly following theKorean War, thework of Kim Chiha and Ko ?n captured the imagination of thepostwar years. Kim China's compelling politi cal poetry became theanthems of studentprotests. Ko ?n's large and powerful body ofwork tran scends thepolitics of his era but still retains the charge of his high-profile political commitments. 3 January February 2010 i41 INTRODUCTION Jonathan Stalling isan assistant professor of English at the University of Oklahoma where he specializes inEast West poetry and poetics. He isthe co-founder and deputy chief editor of the new journal Chinese Literature Today. His Poetics of Emptiness: Transformations ofAsian Thought inAmerican Poetry (Fordham University Press) and Grotto Heaven (Chax Press) are forthcoming inearly spring 2010. Eun-Gwi Chung isa poet critic and translator who, together with Myung Mi Kim, was named recipient of the 2005 Daesan Foundation grant for their translation of Lee Seong-Bok's collec tion Ah! Mouthless Things, forthcoming inthe United States this year. She received her PhD inpoetics at SUNY Buffalo. Currently, she isa professor at Inha University inKorea. BrotherAnthony ofTaize's essay "Ko ?n's Manin bo:History as Poem

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