The Life and Works of Korean Poet Kim Myong-sun: The Flower Dream of a Woman Born Too Soon

This volume is the first comprehensive analysis in English of the three most important yet long-neglected women poets of twentieth-century Korea. Kim Myong-sun (1896-ca. 1951) was the first modern woman poet in Korea; Ko Chong-hui (1948-1991) was the first self-proclaimed feminist poet; and Kim Sung-hui (1952-) is recognized as one of Korea’s first female poet-scholar-critics. Each of these poets availed herself of the power of lyric poetry to celebrate female sexuality, decry violence against women, and honor the marginalized. This book introduces their feminist visions as active chroniclers of public memory and vital participants in national and global politics and literature. By bringing these three poets before the English-reading public, this volume sheds light on the complexity of women’s lives in Korea and contributes to the growing interest in modern Korean women’s literature in the West.