VOL.81/2025.04

The Beginning of the 100-Year History of
Modern Korean Literature

Literary journalist’s pick

2025.04.07

In the history of Korean literature, the relevance of ancient and medieval literature to modern and contemporary literature, and the origins of modern or contemporary literature, have been the subjects of ongoing and fierce debate. These arguments are based on the fact that until just before the 20th century, most literary works were written in Chinese characters rather than Hangeul, and the fact that the Western word “literature” was imported to Korea via Japan. After much debate, many scholars have come to a consensus that 1908 is the year that modern Korean literature began. This is because Choi Nam-Seon’s From the Sun to the Boy, a shinchesi (신체시; a new type of poem that emerged in the early days of Korea’s new literature movement), was published that year.
However, some argue that this poem falls short of literary modernity in the most accurate meaning of the word, and that other works should be considered as the starting point of modern Korean literature. One of the most prominent alternatives to 1908 is 1925. This is because Kim So-Wol’s poetry collection Azaleas was published in that year, and Han Yong-Un wrote the works that would be included in his poetry collection The Silence of My Love, although it was not published until the following year. In that sense, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the true beginning of modern Korean literature.

Since Azaleas and The Silence of My Love have both meaningful similarities and differences, it seems appropriate to introduce the two books by comparing them. First of all, they both assume the absence of a loved one. Azaleas’ title piece, and many others, are about a loved one who has left or is expected to leave. Beginning with “When you’d leave me/ in distaste of my show/ I would let you go without saying a word” and ending with “When you’d leave me/ in distaste of my show/ Never will I weep though I perish,” in Azaleas, the poem’s speaker foreshadows the other person and the attitude he or she will take when, at some point in the future, he or she leaves him or her. Though some interpret this as an ironic plea for the speaker not to leave him or her, it’s clear that the possibility of his or her absence is at the heart of the poem.

Beginning with “Love is gone, gone is my love,” The Silence of My Love starts with the absolute absence of the loved one. The title, “The Silence of My Love,” is a sound metaphor describing the absence of the beloved. However, in Han Yong-Un’s poetry, the silence, or absence, of the loved one paradoxically emphasizes the extent of his or her love for the other. The obstacles or impossibilities of love, whether in the East or the West, are often designed to be the catalysts and facilitators of that love. Similarly, the line, “Though my love is gone, I am not parted from love,” reveals the speaker’s willingness to build up the intensity of love in the absence of the loved one.
Another common thread is that Kim So-Wol’s and Han Yong-Un’s poems about the absence of a loved one are mostly in the voice of a female narrator. The farewell song of a female narrator is a genre rule, one that extends back to the tradition of Korean poetry that goes back to poetry during the Joseon dynasty, the lyrics of Goryeo, and even further back to the songs of Baekje. Despite these similarities, the two poetry collections have distinct characters and differences. While Azaleas’ tone leans toward han (a complex emotion that combines anger, resentment, grief, and regret) and sadness, The Silence of My Love is relatively strong-willed and optimistic. Whereas Azaleas is emotional and uses almost formal rhythms, The Silence of My Love is more logical and philosophical, with run-on sentences that resemble prose poetry. The differences between the two poets’ poetic worlds may be attributed to the fact that Kim So-Wol enjoyed singing personal emotions while refraining from social activism and public statements. At the same time, Han Yong-Un was a fighter for independence under Japanese occupation and a religious reformer who led the reform of Buddhism. These similarities and differences between the two poetry collections hold literary historical significance, as they serve as two primary sources from which Korean lyric poetry has since developed.

Written by Choi Jae-Bong (Senior journalist specializing in publishing and literature at The Hankyoreh)