The Review of Korean Studies
- P-ISSN1229-0076
- E-ISSN2773-9351
- SCOPUS, ESCI
ISSN : 1229-0076
Characteristics of Feminine Writing in 1990s Korean Women's Novels: Women's Autobiographical and Confessional Writing
Abstract
Korean women’s literature played a central role in modern Korean literature of the 1990s. A large number of women writers and their noteworthy literary works emerged and prevailed in the field of modern Korean literature during that era. In the meantime, Korean feminist literary criticism addressed a variety of issues and questions regarding the value and limitations of Korean women’s writing. Responding to this topic, this paper initially analyzes the characteristics and importance of feminine writing in Korean women’s novels of the 1990s. In examining them, I will seek to explore the potential of feminine writing in the context of feminist literary discourse and women’s writing practice. This work focuses mainly on the two types of Korean women’s writing: autobiographical and confessional. Furthermore, this work goes on to investigate the broader literary implications and social meanings of women’s writing. Lastly, I will point out the limitations of ‘feminine’ writing in Korean women’s novels of the 1990s. In terms of feminist aesthetics, Korean women’s autobiographical and confessional writings have striven to involve a wide range of literary discourses and feminist criticisms. With this persistent process, Korean women’s writing becomes capable of acquiring the power and possibility to uncover the rou-tinized problems in relation to women’s oppression and subordination in a male-centered society. Feminist literary poetics, within/through women’s differences, should be grounded in/upon diverse women’s lived experiences and then seek to explore not only an aesthetic but also a social value of their lived experience/reality and the feminine content. Through it, ‘feminine’ writing of women’s literature will be able to thrive within modern Korean literature.
- keywords
- feminine writing, femininity, social reality, women’s lived experiences, autobiographical text, confession, self-reflection, women’s inner-world
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