Kim Haeja is a South Korean poet. After her debut in 1998, she proceeded to demonstrate a unique poetic sensibility through her descriptions of laborers who, despite living in a wretched reality, never lost hope. Her poetry, based on her own experiences as a laborer, vividly represents various work sites while also presenting optimistic possibilities regarding the future through images of women and nature.
1. Life
Kim Haeja was born in Sinan County, South Jeolla Province and grew up in Mokpo. In 1984, she served as the Head of the Truth Commission for the Gwangju Massacre[1] at Korea University and was also involved in leading other student movements, activities for which she was expelled. Afterwards, from 1984 to 1999, she lived in various places while working miscellaneous jobs such as an assembly line worker, machinery operator, milk delivery person, study materials delivery person, and a hagwon (after-school class) teacher. Her experiences working as a laborer in Incheon for 15 years had a large influence in shaping the world of her poetry. She began writing poetry with other laborers and in 1998, she made her debut with the publication of Naeireul yeoneun jakga (내일을 여는 작가 The Writer That Opens Tomorrow). [2]
Beginning with her first poetry collection in 2001, Muhwagwaneun eopda (무화과는 없다 There Are No Figs), Kim Haeja demonstrated a marked interest in workers and other alienated people within society but this interest was not only limited to her poetry. In 2012, she visited numerous work sites and talked to people such as cattle market workers, factory workers, taxi drivers, haenyeo [female divers particularly famous in Jeju Island], farmers, migrant workers, labor activists, and bookstore owners as they lived their daily lives. These conversations were later published as a collection of the people’s oral testimonies, Dangsineul saranghamnida (당신을 사랑합니다 I Love You). In 2015, she co-wrote a joint reportage, Minjungeul girokara (민중을 기록하라 Record the People) that attempted to view contemporary Korean history from a grassroots perspective by examining the lives of migrant workers and the Employment Permit System (EPS).
In 2008, Kim left Seoul and has since been living in the countryside where she also started farming—an experience that has expanded her own poetic concerns. She stated that “If you live together with nature, you can see your own self truthfully and a person that only loves themselves can learn to love beyond only that which enters them” [2] and in this context, referred to herself as “Narcissus.” With this thinking in mind, she wrote her 2013 book of essays, Naega mannan sarameun modu da isanghaetda (내가 만난 사람은 모두 다 이상했다Everyone I Ever Met Was Strange) and continued her search for a “communitas” [3] where work, play, and food are all equal. She also held lectures and classes in various places for people such as laborers, those with Alzheimer’s or dementia, alcoholics, the homeless, and people living on welfare, and helped conduct art therapy programs together with the disabled, workers, and social activists.
Moreover, she also served as the Secretary General and Deputy Director for the Writers Association of Korea, publisher for the worker’s journal Salmi boineun chang (삶이 보이는 창A Window Into Life), and Executive Director for the Labor and Culture Welfare Act. She is also the winner of numerous prizes including the 1998 Jeon Taeil Literary Award (전태일문학상), the 2008 Baek Seok Prize for Literature, the 2016 Yi Yuksa Poetry Prize, the 2018 Kusang Literary Award (구상문학상), and the 2018 Manhae Prize for Literature.
2. Writing
Workers’ Poetry
A sense of concern regarding workers and alienated people, as well as the condition of women laborers continuously threads Kim Haeja’s poetry. Within the genealogy of worker’s poetry, there is a general tendency to express resentment and anger at the wretched realities of workers but Kim Haeja’s poetry distinguishes itself through a sentiment of “shame” regarding workers, women, and other subordinated subjects. [4] This demeanor is indebted to the way in which Kim Haeja’s poetry does not simply stop at simple accusations and criticisms of reality, but also seeks to manifest change after reflection and adheres to a hopeful belief in the future.
Interest in the Other
An essential component of Kim Haeja’s poetry is her constant concern and empathy for the Other. In her first poetry collection in 2001, Muhwagwaneun eopda, from the very first poem “Hanbamjung” (한밤중 The Middle of the Night), there is a narrator that feels guilty for focusing only on herself when she is not a stranger or Other. The figures of poor laborers, as well as female laborers, repeatedly appear. With authenticity and emotion, she presents female laborers’ lives through the prism of images such as their weariness from staying up all night, their inability to leave the machine they are operating, and their working bodies even in the midst of full-term pregnancy. While she describes a tragic reality, she does not merely dwell on this and through images of “rose vines,” “ivy,” “sunflowers,” and other plants, she describes a beauty and hope that allows for the endurance of this reality. This tendency continues all the way through to her 2015 poetry collection, Jibe gaja (집에 가자 Let’s Go Home). In the “Author’s Note” to this collection, she writes “To all the lonely, low, and warm souls of the world: I dedicate this foolish poetry collection to you.” [8] In this manner, she expresses her perpetual concern for this abysmal reality but also for the people that are her neighbors within that very reality. Because of her position, where she does not differentiate between “I” and “you” and instead pursues a singular unity, she has received reviews that state “For all the poor and suffering souls in this land, there is Kim Haeja’s poetry” [7].
Hwaeom Buddhist Outlook on the World
Beginning in the mid-2000s, Kim Haeja began to nurse a terminally ill family member and also personally suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage for which she had to undergo an eleven-hour surgery, during which she hovered on the brink of life and death. These experiences added a new consciousness regarding death, life, and eternity in Kim Haeja’s poetry.
Such a change can be seen in her 2007 poetry collection, Chukje (축제 Festival), where all beings are treated without discrimination or hierarchy and with an importance in the larger universe, demonstrating an outlook towards life that corresponds to Hwaeom [5] Buddhism [6]. In the titular poem “Chukje” (축제 Festival), she writes: “If one goes and one arrives, death has no beginning. If life is a resplendent dance, is not death merely a festival? Eternity and life’s ebbs and flows, are they not found within these choreographed steps?” This kind of Hwaeom Buddhist perspective on the world is materialized in Chukje as a jinhongut (진혼굿, Korean shamanistic ritual for the repose of souls)[7] for those that have died in labor movements [6]. After the publication of Chukje, her poetry expanded to include an emphasis on the cycles of nature.
Poetry as Practice
In her 2018 poetry collection, Haejane jeomjip (해자네 점집The Fortuneteller at Haeja’s Household), Kim blends stories of daily life living together with nature along with scenes of real politics such as the 2016 Candlelight Protests at Gwanghwamun Square [9] in a complex manner. She takes a critical perspective towards the way capitalism creates a cruel and heartless reality, but then also prescribes love and nature as a cure. Even as she describes a wretched reality, Kim Haeja’s poetry never loses “love” and “hope”—two concepts that can serve as the keywords that thread her repertoire. With the fundamental belief that the author as an individual and the society that the author belongs to cannot be separated [10], Kim Haeja has stated that she is not a “worker poet” but rather, an “activist” [11] and her poetry, in its desire to cure life afflicted with the disease of capitalism, is a manifestation of literary practice.
Reference
[1] See the Korean Wikipedia entry for the Gwangju Uprising and the pro-democratization movements.
https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/5%C2%B718_%EA%B4%91%EC%A3%BC_%EB%AF%BC%EC%A3%BC%ED%99%94_%EC%9A%B4%EB%8F%99
[2] See the Naver Books’ information page for Naega mannan sarameun modu da isanghaetda. https://book.naver.com/bookdb/book_detail.nhn?bid=7257006
[3] See Naver encyclopedia’s entry on Victor Turner’s concept of “liminality” and “communitas.” https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=1691473&cid=42251&categoryId=42260#TABLE_OF_CONTENT3
[4] Yu, Sangbeom. “Research on the ‘Emotion of Shame’ in the Poetry of Kim Haeja and Song Kyung-Dong.” Chung Cheon Mun Hwa Yon Gu 20 (2018), 270.
[5] See the Naver Encyclopedia entry on Hweom Buddhism.
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=1381336&cid=40942&categoryId=31544
[6] See the Naver Books’ information page for Chukje.
https://book.naver.com/bookdb/book_detail.nhn?bid=4281680
[7] See the Naver Encyclopedia entry on jinogwigut (지노귀굿 shamanistic ritual for the repose of souls).
https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=3326784&cid=46655&categoryId=46655
[8] See the Naver Books’ information page for Jibe gaja. https://book.naver.com/bookdb/book_detail.nhn?bid=9330570
[9] See the Naver Encyclopedia page on the Candlelight Protests. https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=1224858&cid=40942&categoryId=31615#TABLE_OF_CONTENT2
[10] Literature Translation Institute of Korea. “To Live on Nature’s Time: Poet Kim Haeja.” LTI Korea’s Official Blog, 28 September 2018. https://blog.naver.com/itlk/221367326820.
[11] Kim Seongho. “This Year’s Winner of the Manhae Prize for Literature and the Kusang Literary Award: ‘Worker’s Poet’ Kim Haeja.” Kyeongin Ilbo, 14 November 2018.
http://www.kyeongin.com/main/view.php?key=20181113010004041
