Yun Dong-ju (1917–1945) was a Korean poet.
1. Life
Yun Dong-ju was a Korean poet born in Jilin, China, who was known for his lyric poetry as well as his resistance poems during Japan's occupation of Korea. After studying at Myeongdong School, he moved to Pyongyang and studied at Soongsil Middle School (now Soongsil University in Seoul). He later moved to Seoul and attended Yonhi College (now Yonsei University).
In 1939, his second year at Yonhi College, he published the poems "Yueon" (유언 His Last Words) and "Auui insanghwa" (아우의 인상화 An Impressionist Painting of My Younger Brother) in the Chosun Ilbo, and "Sanullim" (산울림 An Echo in the Mountain) in Sonyeon magazine. He pursued his studies in Japan, entering Kyoto Doshisha University in 1942, but was arrested by the Japanese police for alleged anti-Japanese movements in 1943. While imprisoned in Fukuoka, he died at the age of 27, leaving over 100 poems. His cause of death is uncertain, but theories have been raised based on accounts of saltwater injections and medical experiments performed at that prison. Yun's poetry collection, Haneulgwa baramgwa byeolgwa si (하늘과 바람과 별과 시 Sky, Wind and Stars), was published posthumously in 1948. With the appearance of this volume Yun came into the spotlight as a resistance poet of the late occupation period.
In November 1968, Yonsei University endowed the Yun Dong-ju Poetry Prize. In 2007, Yun was listed by the Korean Poets' Association among the ten most important modern Korean poets. Sky, Wind, and Stars has been published in the US, France, Spain, Russia, China, and Japan.
2. Writing
Yun Dong-ju’s unique poetic voice arises from what might be called the “aesthetics of shame.” A product of honest self-evaluation and relentless inquiry regarding the values one must defend against corruption, his poetry reveals a self striving toward fulfillment by overcoming inner conflict. It is from the honesty of such self-examination that the note of dissident protest begins, even though some scholars have also argued that the poet’s Christian, nationalist background lies at the root of his poetics.
To Yun, Japanese colonization was a tragic force that barred the colonized from achieving full subjectivity. Crippled and humiliated, the colonized consciousness might wish to turn its eyes away from itself, but Yun Dong-ju’s poetry makes clear that it is through unsparing self-examination that one might achieve a conscience adapted to the times.[1]
"Salmgwa jugeum" (삶과 죽음 Life and Death) is representative of the poems dating from 1934 to 1936, his period of literary apprenticeship. It describes the conflict between life and death, or light and darkness, but its poetic framework is more or less crude. From 1937 onwards, however, his poems reveal ruthless introspection and anxiety about the dark realities of the times. His best-known works such as "Seosi" (서시 Foreword), "Jahwasang" (자화상 Self-Portrait), and "Byeol heneun bam" (별 헤는 밤 One Night I Count the Stars) from this later period reach clear literary fruition in terms of their reflection on the inner self and their recognition of nationalist realities, as embodied in the poet's own experiences. In particular, they evince a steely spirit that attempts to overcome anxiety, loneliness, and despair and to surmount contemporary realities through hope and courage.
The final years of Japanese rule in Korea witnessed unprecedented levels of oppression as Japan embarked on mobilization for its military campaign in the Pacific. Korean men were drafted into the army or conscripted as forced labor, while the ideology of imperial wholeness under the advent of military fascism sought to erase all traces of Korea’s separate identity by targeting its language, heritage and culture. It was during this period that Yun Dong-ju wrote his poems of protest, giving voice to the internalized agonies of the colonized consciousness.
Reference
[1] Yi, Nam-Ho, et al. Twentieth Century Korean Literature. Eastbridge Books, An Imprint Of Camphor Press, 2005. p.27-28
