Kim Seok-beom and Kim Si-jong, as April 3 refugee writers, strongly recalled April 3 30 years ago when they saw the horrors of May 18 in Gwangju in 1980. The two writers, who have a sense of debt of shame for those who survived, became aware of the re...
Kim Seok-beom and Kim Si-jong, as April 3 refugee writers, strongly recalled April 3 30 years ago when they saw the horrors of May 18 in Gwangju in 1980. The two writers, who have a sense of debt of shame for those who survived, became aware of the repeated history of their country, paying attention to the May 18 uprising that strongly revived the memories of Jeju’s uprising and massacre.
Kim Seok-beom’s short story “A Woman Without a Breast” (1981) reaffirms the contradiction of division through the commonalities between Jeju and Gwangju, called “Cutted Breast.” It eloquently says that April 3 is a memory that can no longer be stopped. This can be said to be a powerful message that is not a suicide or murder of memory, but a revival of memory.
Kim Si-jong’s poetry collection “Gwangju’s Poetry” (1983) shows that the passion of the April 3 Uprising, which had been silent for a long time, was screaming again at the base in the wake of Gwangju’s May 18 Uprising. It is said that it is read as a realistic struggle to regenerate the dream of revolution. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that “Gwangju’s Poetry” is “Jeju’s Poetry” when looking deeply behind it.