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Women in Korean literature

Now that Chuseok is over, most Korean housewives are beyond exhausted. They have spent the holiday in the kitchen, cooking for numerous guests and preparing special food for "jesa," the Korean ritual of ancestor worship. As for men, they have been idling, playing cards or watching TV in the living room. It is only natural that Korean women have developed a so-called "holiday phobia."

If you are interested in tracing women's social status in Korean literature, Yi Gwang-su's "The Heartless" (1917) may be a good start. "The Heartless," which is considered Korea's first modern novel, is an account of the conflicts between traditional ethics and modernist ideals in a time of confused values and warring ideals.

In the timeframe in which "The Heartless" unfolds, marriage is still arranged by Korean parents, regardless of the will of their children. Thus Lee's protagonist boldly challenges the custom long preserved in the name of filial piety. The problem is that Yi's novel presents women not as human beings with dignity and integrity, but as a symbol of the old values or of the new ideals - both chosen by men. Reduced to a metaphor, Korean women are invisible in "The Heartless," existing only as distant background music.

Women in Hyun Jin-geon's stories are much more repressed by a patriarchal society that emphasizes a balanced social order and hierarchy. Hyun's "My Poor Wife" (1920) is a heartbreaking story about the protagonist's guilt and sympathy for his wife, who suffers because of her extreme poverty.

Nevertheless, the story is not so much about the husband's sympathetic feelings for his wife as the underlying social and psychological repression imposed on her. Throughout the story endurance and submission are expected of the wife, and thus when she fails to fulfill her husband's expectations, he immediately reproaches her.

Korean women's quest for visibility and their own space began in the 1990s at last, heralded by Kim Soo-kyung's novel, "Liberty Bell," which was published in 1990. A powerful parody of Yi Hae-jo's New Novel, "Liberty Bell" (1910), Kim's seminal fiction of the 1990s is a timely announcement of the advent of women's liberation from the ruthless oppression of patriarchal society.

Kim Myung-ja, the female protagonist of Liberty Bell, perceives Korean society primarily as a gigantic mental institution where people are hopelessly tranquilized, driven by supreme madness and repression stemmed from military dictatorship and leftist political ideologies, which were predominant in the 1980s. Kim Myung-ja, widely awake, boldly attempts to flee from dormant of Korean society, and build her own room in another country to write an "unprecedented New Novel" to astonish the world.

In Paris, Kim secures a woman's space where she writes sitting naked at a dining table. She makes love to a black man from South America. These are, of course, her symbolic gestures to defy all the social norms and taboos imposed on women on the one hand, and to be completely free from all social restrictions on the other. For instance, she mocks men by using a pen, which is a phallic symbol, derides cookery by writing at her dining table, and finally defies a sexual taboo by having interracial sex with a dark-skinned foreigner. Completely free from patriarchal oppression, Kim indeed tolls the "Liberty Bell" in her fiction, boldly declaring women's liberation.

Today Korean women's social status has vastly improved, thanks to the powerful women's rights movement. Nevertheless, the striving of Korean women to be visible and heard will continue, not only in literature but also in society, until they become visible and present in society.

Question
1. What do you think of the position of women in your home or society?
2. Can you find a book, movie or drama in which we realize the improved women's social, domestic status?
3. Tell us ideal husband or wife image who you want to get married or you want to be?
4. How do you think that what is right sex position in now or next generation?

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