Kim Kirim
김기림
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.