Jin Eun-young is a South Korean poet and philosopher. She has been awarded a number of accolades including the Hyundae Literary Award, Cheon Sang-byeong Poetry Prize, and Daesan Literary Award. She currently teaches at the Korea Counseling Graduate University.
1. Life
Jin Eun-young was born in Daejeon, South Korea in 1970. She received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in philosophy at Ewha Womans' University. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on "Nietzsche and the Philosophy of Difference(니체와 차이의 철학)."
She began her literary career when Literature and Society published The House with the Large Shed(커다란 창고가 있는 집 ) and three of her other poems in its 2000 Spring Issue. She has three poetry collections published to date: A Dictionary Made of Seven Words (일곱 개의 단어로 된 사전, 2003), Everyday, We (우리는 매일매일, 2008), and Stealing Away Song (훔쳐가는 노래, 2012).
As a member of Suyu Neomeo, a research community for humanities scholars in South Korea, Jin wrote two philosophy books, namely, Critique of Pure Reason: Taking Reason to Court(순수이성비판, 이성을 법정에 세우다, 2004) and Niche, Nietzsche, Eternal Return and the Philosophy of Difference (니체, 영원회귀와 차이의 철학, 2007).
In 2008, her article "Distribution of the Sensible: On the Poetry of the 2000s (감각적인 것의 분배: 2000년대 시에 대하여 )" was published. Referring to Rancière in discussing the relationship between poetry and politics, the article caused a stir in the South Korean literary scene. Jin cited the article years later in her book The Atopos of Literature (문학의 아토포스 ), which was published in 2014.
2. Writing
Jin Eun-young is a poet who is adept at portraying familiar and mundane subjects with a new sensibility. As an artist-cum-philosopher, she recognizes both the romantic and realistic sides of the two professions and expresses them artistically. Her poems tend to be short because she prefers using words simply and sparingly to create a powerful sensory experience, rather than being overly concerned with sending readers a certain message.
Literary critic Lee Gwang-ho remarked on Jin's poetry that it "defies the sentimental conformity of poems written in the 1990s, and is delivered in the hushed whisper and cracking voice of poetic expression that has not yet been institutionialized," referring to how her poetry flies in the face of contemporary sensibilities. She often creates synesthetic metaphors that cannot fall under any one of the five senses. Her metaphors don’t try to teach readers the essence of anything; rather, they allow readers to be seized by a curious, fleeting sensation. This is why her poems have been noted for their playful innocence, boundless imagination, and power of uninhibited thought.
While these characteristics are found throughout her work, her third poetry collection Stealing Away Song (훔쳐가는 노래, 2012) includes a significant number of poems that combine sociological imagination with political poetry. Even before writing this collection, Jin endeavored to find ways to discuss social issues without writing poems that stir up public agitation with blunt criticisms of society. Such efforts resulted in Humcheoganeun norae. In her work, Jin depicts the scars and contradictions of the world through unconventional metaphors.
