Yi Geun-hwa (Korean: 이근화; born 1976) is a South Korean modern poet and professor.[1]
| Born | 1976 (age 47–48) |
|---|---|
| Language | Korean |
| Nationality | South Korean |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 이근화 |
| Revised Romanization | I Geunhwa |
| McCune–Reischauer | I Kŭnhwa |
Life
editYi Geun-hwa was born in 1976 in Seoul, Korea.[2] Having received her PhD after researching "colonial period Korean appearing in 1930s poetry", Yi currently lectures while continuing her creative writing activities.[3]
Work
editYi Geun-hwa published her first poems in the review Hyeondae Munhak in 2004.[4]
Yi's poems apply a light tone to show small yet interesting landscapes from life, give us a feeling of intimacy at first; but after a moment that feeling becomes more complex, and then often changes to perplexity. Expressions such as "A blue-bellied fish lies flush with the rope, staring at one place, that place where the clouds roll by, a girl lives together with a boy, and they go to market together // a fly is jumping rope with the usual gestures, therefore at zero-six fifty minutes, they turn at the market corner and at the second house buy a mackerel" (selected passage from "Mackerel"), or lines like "This is my body/ a king jar/ I have no arms or legs/ once I am cut/ I will bare my neck/ but the rumored jar/ resembles the story/ and the story's stomach is full" (selected passage from "King Jar") presents scenes that are familiar to us but which, filtered through the poet's voice, become hard, unfamiliar landscapes.[5]
Some readers and critics have expressed regret or criticism, mentioning the "difficulty" and the "incommunicability" of her poems. But in an interview with the press, the poet has stated, "I do think that poetic language must be communicative in some way, but who is to say that communicativeness must be limited to one or two ways? ... I think "difficult poems demand new ways of communicating". In this way, through incommunicability, the poet speaks to the world in a paradoxical way that shows a yearning for true communication.[5]
Yi has received the Yun Dong-ju young writers’ award (2009), the Kim Jun-seong literary award (2010),[6] as well as the Siwa Segye award (2011) and the Hyeondae literary award (2013).[4]
Works in Korean
edit- Kant's Zoo (Kanteu ui dongmulweon, Mineumsa, 2006)
- Our Evolution (Uri deul ui jinhwa, Munhakgwa jiseongsa, 2009)
References
edit- ^ "이근화" biographical PDF available at LTI Korea Library or online at: "Author Database - Korea Literature Translation Institute". Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
- ^ "이근화 시인". people.search.naver.com/search.naver?sm=tab_txc&where=people_profile&ie=utf8&query=%EC%9D%B4%EA%B7%BC%ED%99%94&os=417900. Naver. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
- ^ Source-attribution|"Yi Geun-hwa" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at: "Author Database - Korea Literature Translation Institute". Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
- ^ a b Sonjae, An. "3 Poems by Yi Geun-hwa". hompi.sogang.ac.kr (in English and Korean). Sogang Hompi. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
- ^ a b Source-attribution| "이근화" biographical PDF available at LTI Korea Library or online at: "Author Database - Korea Literature Translation Institute". Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
- ^ "이근화 시인 > 소상내역". people.search.naver.com/search.naver?sm=tab_txc&where=people_profile&ie=utf8&query=%EC%9D%B4%EA%B7%BC%ED%99%94&os=417900. Naver. Retrieved 14 November 2013.