Korean-American literature is originated in the complex processes of reflecting that (1) without coercion most Korean immigrants voluntarily moved to the U.S., (2) the U.S. where the Korean immigrants decided to move was a superpower with state system...
Korean-American literature is originated in the complex processes of reflecting that (1) without coercion most Korean immigrants voluntarily moved to the U.S., (2) the U.S. where the Korean immigrants decided to move was a superpower with state systems which were have been
formed by adopting western modernism and capitalism, (3) the Korean immigrants had to compose writings with the linguistic conflicts between English and Korean, while Korean was one of the minority languages and English was one of the World official languages, and lastly (4) the
range and concept of the national literature was changeable when the Korean immigrants had to choose one of the two languages for writings.
Features different from the general features of diaspora literature are caused by the fact that although the Korean immigrants voluntarily moved to the U.S. society, they were also voluntarily included in the U.S. society with great ethnic diversity. Since the Korean immigrants’voluntary choice to move to the U.S. presupposes that they could voluntarily return to Korea whenever they want, on the contrary, not only it is hard for the Korean immigrants to consider themselves to be
the descendants of their lost home country, but also it is not easy to make conflicts with the orders for majority to level up to political issues
Thus, the approach to see Korean-American literature from the postcolonialism perspective could be a useful text to measure how the conceptual framework of orientalism describing that the West regards the East as the other is effective. Given the emotional sentiment and culture inherent in Korean, furthermore, the approach provides
conceptual background to judge to what extent the discussion on postcolonialism plays a role in breaking colonialism represented as the orientalism.
In his writing of the Grass Root, Kang, Yonghill understood the collapse of the Korean Empire and its traditional culture from a mixed perspective combining nationalism and colonialism. In one sense, it indicates Kang’s limits in terms of de eloping writer’s consciousness and national consciousness. In the other sense, however, it might be inevitable, given the periodical world situation in the 1930s that the West had an overwhelming super power over the East. In addition,
there is evidence that colonialism is somewhat included in the writer’s consciousness of Kang in that he sought individual ideal established by himself and in that he maintained unconditional trust toward the western
modernism represented by the U.S.. However, In the East goes West, the follow-up writing of the Grass Root, Kang Yonghill revealed how false his emotional affection toward the U.S is and how violent the modern system of the West is particularly to the minority immigrants in
the U.S.. Kang, Yonghill criticized the U.S. and modernism in an indirect and roundabout manner by overcoming the colonial dual consciousness existed in himself. With a super national sentiment to create the power of harmony and tie, moreover, he overcomes the dichotomous awareness of the Western modernism causing losing his home country.
Unlike the writings of Kang, Yonghill and Lee, Chang-Rae, Kim, Eunkook did not attempt to set the U.S. as a spatiotemporal background in his writings. For example, the Martyr set it as around Pyongyang during the Korean war, the Judge set it as Seoul and its suburban area
where assumedly, 5.16. military coup occurred in 1961, and the Lost names set it the northern and southern part of the Korean peninsular while Japan colonized Korea. The author confessed that it is based on not simply a part of strategy that literally describing Korean things might lead to the world literature but also an investigation about universal humanity and truth by utilizing the background of particular events such as the Korean war and 5.14 military coup. Given some weakness in the Lost names in that soldiers of North Korea are portrayed as a devil without deep consideration of North Korea’s
specific political situations, and that pastor Shin’s behaviors are not described as the behaviors for universal humanity, the author failed to appropriately maintain the national perspective which postcolonialism
must include.
In addition, there are some critics about heroism and dichotomous determination on good and bad described in the Judge. In the Lost name, however, Lee, Chang-Rae attempted to overcome the critic that his former writings held the national perspective, by literally portraying
issues of truth and justice with the efforts to restore the lost historicity and obtain objectivity. Lee, Chang-Rae is in progress of writing his own works actively realizing ambivalence and hibridity which are an essential concept of postcolonialism. Lee, Chang-Rae portrays the process how a character lacking perfect English fluency turns to a person full of self-positivity in the Native speaker. In the Gesture life, the author describes details of a character’s abnormal life who was born in Korea but raised in a Japanese family and then volunteered for Japanese military service and his memories about comfort women that he witnessed during the military service. Ultimately, the author stresses
that self-respect can be built by accepting and adopting hibridity. In the Surrendered, the author describes the main characters’ life who moved to the U.S after the Korean war and his journey to look for his son who left to look for the him. The three writers show the generational characteristics appropriately.
They also portray well the ambivalence and hibridity which provide power to help understand immigrants’ identity in a flexible and structural manner when discussing about the issues of dual consciousness, imitation, majority orders by the Whites, and colonial
system required in postcolonialism. The achievement of the three writers provides a great momentum in initiating and developing the literature for the others and the literature for life beyond the limited scope of Korean-American literature.
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