Kim Kirim (1908 - ?) is a Korean poet, literary critic, and literary theorist. In mid-1930s, he formed the Circle of Nine (Guinhoe, 구인회)[1] with leading modernists, including Yi Sang, Park Taewon, and Lee Hyo-seok. Under the conviction that literature should reflect the sentiments of the times, he contributed substantially to the establishment of Korean modernist literature in both theoretical and creative domains. He underscored intellectualism and formalism, criticizing sentimentalism and biases of literature during the Japanese colonial period. After the country’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, he showed commitment to helping build a new sovereign nation by calling for the engagement and involvement of the literary world.
1. Life
Kim was born in Haksung, North Hamgyeong Province, in 1908. He dropped out of Posung High School in Seoul and went to Tokyo to continue his studies in 1921. After graduating from Nihon University with a bachelor’s degree in literary arts in 1930, he returned to Korea and began working as a newspaper reporter. Then he went back to Japan in 1936 and earned a master’s degree in English literature with a thesis on I.A.Richards. He returned to Korea and resumed his job as a newspaper reporter, which he lost in 1940 as the newspaper was coercively discontinued. He went back to his hometown in 1942 and taught English and mathematics at a middle school.[2] Immediately after the country’s liberation, he fled to the South from Soviet Union occupied North Korea in 1946. He took part in progressive Chosun Writers’ Union (조선문학가동맹)[3] along with other neutral writers, including Jeong Ji-yong and Lee Tae-jun. Then, he withdrew from the union around the time the Republic of Korea was established 1948. It is presumed that he died in North Korea, to which he was kidnapped during the Korean War in 1950.[4]
2. Writing
Kim made his debut as a poet in 1930, publishing poem Gageora saeroun saenghwalro (가거라 새로운 생활로 Away to the New Life) while working as a newspaper reporter. In the following year, he started his career as a literary critic by publishing a short essay about intellectualism, Pieroui dokbaek (피에로의 독백 Pierrot’s Monologue).[5]
A founding member of the Circle of Nine (구인회), he played an active part as a modernist poet along with Lee Sang. He was at the forefront of introducing intellectualist literary with Choi Jai-sou and established his own literary theory based on Richards’s theory. His notable poetry collections include Gisangdo (기상도, The Weather Chart)(1936) and Taeyangui pungsok (태양의 풍속 Wind Speed of the Sun)(1939). He also wrote essay collection Badawa yukche (바다와 육체 The Sea and the Body)(1948) and theoretical publication Munhakgaeron (문학개론 Introduction to Literature)(1946). In 1988, Gimgirim jeonjip (김기림 전집 The Complete Collection of Kim Kirim) was published.[6]
Pre-liberation
Kim, a leader in the modernist literary circles in the 1930’s, moved faster than others in embracing the modernist theories of the West and established and applied his own theory into his works. He believed that Korean literature should aim to reach modernity in step with the progress in modern civilization. He argued that to this end, its focus should shift from excessive sentimentalism and content itself to intellectualism and form.[7]
In Gisangdo (1936), influenced by T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” Kim applied his own literary theory. It is a satire on modern civilization through the comparison of the unstable international circumstances in the 1930s to a situation where a typhoon was developing.[8] The work was highly regarded for his insight into Western literature and modern viewpoints, but, at the same time, faced criticism that it failed to capture reality of the time with preoccupation with techniques. The caustic criticism of Gisangdo triggered Kim’s self-reflection and theoretical change, leading him to create “total poetics” in the late 1930s, where balance between modernist techniques and critical social consciousness was pursued.[9]
Poetry collection Taeyangui pungsok (1939) represents Kim’s poetic style in the 1930s along with Gisangdo. In the preface, he says, “We should emulate the wind speed of the sun that is vigorous, bold, cheerful and sound while refraining from crying for no reason, attachment to the past that cannot be saved, immoderate sentimentalism, and lamentation.” This sentence reflects the essence of the modernist movement in poetry of the time, seeking to adopt Western literary techniques and express civilization-related sensibilities.[10] In title poem Taeyangui pungsok, he desires the moment of the sun eliminating darkness. His desire for the sun is a display of his will for the future, clearly revealing the move away from the conventional poetic tendencies in the 1930s.[11]
Post-liberation
After the country’s liberation, Kim sought to meet the demand of the time￣the establishment of a new ethnic community. He published writings, highlighting the connection between literature and reality and calling for writers’ social engagement. This is not an abrupt change; it is an extension of his old theory, ‘total poetics’ in particular, where he argued poetry should deliver the spirit of the times. In this sense, the post-liberation era was the right time for him to put his conviction about the role of poets into practice.[12]
Saenorae (새노래 The Birdsong) (1948) is the poetry collection that represents his poetics at this time. Most poems in the collection portray the post-liberation realities with the joys of liberation and hopes for a new country. In Padosori hechigo (파도소리 헤치고 Getting through the roar of the waves), he declares that “the morning of once lost homeland” has arrived and calls on “brothers” to look at “the splendid morning and longed-for sun.”[13] At the end of the collection, he explains that he wanted to break away from a private lonely monologue and sing as one of the people who were shaping a new history. After liberation, he went beyond modernism and presented a new aim of a national community,[14] but some criticize that he was so carried away that he failed to remain realistic in understanding the trends of the time.[15]
Reference
1) The Circle of Nine (구인회) is a friendly literary gathering formed in 1933. It was named after the number of the founding members￣Kim Kirim, Lee Jong-myeong, Kim Yu-young, Lee Hyo-seok, Lee Moo-young, Yu Chi-jin, Lee Tae-jun, Jo Yong-man, and Jeong ji-yong. Members changed several times with Lee Hyo-seok and Yu Chi-jin leaving and Park Tae-won, Lee sang, Kim Yujeong joining, but the number of members always remained nine. In opposition to the Korea Artists Proletariat Federation (KAPF), a socialist literary group, they pursued purity in literature and significantly contributed to the development of modernist literature.
Kwon Young-min, Unabridged Dictionary of Korean Modern Literature, Seoul National University Press, 2004.
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=336997&cid=60555&categoryId=60555
2) Encyclopedia of Korean Culture
http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0008820
3) Chosun Writers’ Union is a left-leaning literary society formed in Seoul in December 6, 1945. It was officially launched by holding Chosun Writers Congress in February 1946. Kim Kirim played a leading role in the union as the chairman of the poetry subcommittee and delivered a lecture on ‘directions on Korean poetry’ at the Congress.
“A Study on Kim Kirim’s Literary Activities and Ideology during the Liberation Period: Kim Kirim and Lyuh Woon-hyung,” Journal of Korean Modern Literature 48, 2016.
4) Wikipedia https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EA%B9%80%EA%B8%B0%EB%A6%BC
5) Encyclopedia of Korean Culture
http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0008820
6) Kwon Young-min, Unabridged Dictionary of Korean Modern Literature, Seoul National University Press, 2004.
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=333202&cid=41708&categoryId=41737
7) Jang Seokju et al. I am Literature, Namuiyagi, 2009.
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=955820&cid=60538&categoryId=60538
8) Kang Jin-ho et al. Annotated Bibliography of Korean Modern Literature Ⅰ, Modern Literature Information Center, National Library of Korea, 2015.
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?cid=60550&docId=4353831&categoryId=63761
9) Jang Seokju et al. I am Literature, Namuiyagi, 2009.
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=955820&cid=60538&categoryId=60538
10) Encyclopedia of Korean Culture
http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0058993
11) Encyclopedia of Korean Culture
http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0071547
12) Kwon Young-min, Unabridged Dictionary of Korean Modern Literature, Seoul National University Press, 2004.
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=333202&cid=41708&categoryId=41737
13) Kwon Young-min, Unabridged Dictionary of Korean Modern Literature, Seoul National University Press, 2004.
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=334549&cid=41708&categoryId=41737
14) Encyclopedia of Korean Culture
http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0008820
15) Jang Seokju et al. I am Literature, Namuiyagi, 2009.
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=955820&cid=60538&categoryId=60538
