Abstract

This paper looks at the current status and position of women’s literature in Korea. It returns to the relationship between women's and national literature, and notes that despite various achievements and new directions in women's literature and feminist criticism, we may be currently witnessing a loss of the complex perspectives and critical momentum. These are what feminist critics worked for in the 1980s, when they tried to reconstruct and establish ties between national literature and "women's liberation literature.' This article reviews the efforts of these critics and looks for connections (or disconnections) with two recent trends: critiques of the categories of nation/nationalism and discourses on femaleness.