The purpose of the present thesis is to explore the problem of the persecution of women in the Korean female poets poems from the viewpoint of postcolonial feminism. The problem of women's persecution in the Korean female poetry cannot be assessed onl...
The purpose of the present thesis is to explore the problem of the persecution of women in the Korean female poets poems from the viewpoint of postcolonial feminism. The problem of women's persecution in the Korean female poetry cannot be assessed only by the interpretation of imperialistic assault of the phallus. It should be analyzed within the context of multi-discourse of the Korean patriarchal ideology, traditional sex discrimination, the modernization process of the Korea assisted by imperialistic powers, global capitalism, and nationalism.
Thus the present paper examines how imperialism and nationalism, along with patriarchal capitalism, are largely responsible for the Korean women s persecution by drawing on various texts. It analyzes Ko Jung-hee's "The Spring of Chirisan" and "Declaring Women's Liberation" which most poignantly and successfully indict the imperialistic powers in the Korean history and modernization process. It also deals with the sufferings of Asian women who have been forced to play only a minimal role in the capitalistic market economy by the imperialistic phallus powers, referring to Ko Jung-hee's serial poem Rice and Capitalism." Using the text of Kim Seung-hee' s Mother Standing Outside the Door," the paper also explores how the discourse of the “homogeneous” nationalism ostracizes women's body already impaired by the imperialistic powers, It reads the body' of Yun-gum, who is brutally murdered by a mentally deranged American soldier, as the allegory of the nation doubly colonized. Finally, it calls for the attention to the postcolonial feminism by examining the seductive appellation mechanism in the age of global capitalism and telecommunication where the imperialistic pop culture is already invading.