KOREAN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Books are a universal medium that capture the experiences of one or many. Korean Americans have been writing books in the United States for over 70 years. What is Korean American literature? What contributions have Korean Americans made in the field of American literature?
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Elaine Kim |
Linda Sue Park |
An Na |
Nora Okja Keller |
Don Lee |
Heinz Insu Fenkl |
| Photo credit: Klaus Pollmeier |
Photo credit: Michele McDonald |
[For grades 6-8, the works of Linda Sue Park and An Na would be most suitable.]
Just like other cultural media such as film and theater, a certain, gratifying sense of identification happens when you pick up a book filled with characters who look like you, talk like you, and/or think like you. That sense of mirrored identification is essential in the development of personal well-being.
Books are a mirror to our history, our society, our experiences. Literature by Americans of Korean descent is no different. The first Korean American titles explored stories of immigration, of adjusting to life in the new world, in a land where the language, the food, the culture, the people were all so unfamiliar. Younghill Kang, the first Korean American novelist, wrote of his experiences in Japanese-occupied Korea in 1931 in The Grass Roof. In 1937, Kang captured his own immigration experience in an autobiographical novel, East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee.
More than six decades later, the immigration story is still very much an important storyline, but the variations on a familiar theme are almost limitless. Because of historically restrictive laws, the Korean American community initially remained small until after 1965 when those immigration laws were finally lifted to allow for large numbers of immigrants from all over Asia to enter the United States.
The first post-1965 immigrants, however, were focused on the basic necessities of finding housing, securing jobs and providing for their families. Leisure time was almost unheard of, which meant attention to the arts was a luxury for only a very few people. However, as immigrant families began to settle into their adopted country and find relative success, the next generations could turn their attention to careers involving the arts, including writing, filmmaking and making theater.
A full generation – and then some – after the arrival of the initial post-1965 immigrants, Korean American writers are flourishing, not only in numbers, but in the breadth and quality of their literary works. In the last decade, no longer constrained with the challenges of basic survival, the newest generations of Korean Americans have been witness to an especially rich production of titles, with award-winning authors like Chang-rae Lee and Linda Sue Park leading the way.
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