Kim MyungIn

Kim MyungIn
Hangeul	김명인
Hanja	金明仁
Revised Romanization	Gim Myeong-in
McCune- Reischauer	Kim Myŏngin
See also : Korean name

Kim MyungIn or Kim Myong-in (born September 2, 1946 in Uljin , Kyŏngsangbuk-do ) is a South Korean poet .

Life

Kim MyungIn was born on September 2, 1946 in Uljin. He attended Hup'o High School and received his PhD in Korean literature from Korea University in 1985 . He currently works as a professor of Korean literature at Kyonggi University . He has also been a visiting professor at Brigham Young University in the USA and Far Eastern College in Russia.

He made his literary debut in 1973 when his poem The ship leaves the port (출항 제) won a literary competition. Concern for memories can be found in his poems again and again - not nice memories, but rather painful ones. In his works, memories resemble a disease, a disease that limits the ability to move freely. When memories deal with the past, they also have the power to torture the present self. Inasmuch as one can only heal the self by confronting it directly with the memories. Memories in Kim's poems focus on two overwhelming dark images - his father and the Korean War . Since Kim was born in 1946, his childhood was inextricably linked with the experiences of war. These memories of a childhood shattered by war appear in the poem Das Haus in Kentucky 1 (켄터키 의 집 1). As in the poem My Father in the Rain (비 속의 아버지), the memory of being defenseless in the middle of the war suggests being repelled by something absolute - here symbolized by the father.

By reviving his memories of childhood suffering, Kim tries to rid himself of it. Memories enable the poet to discover the other in his own self; this other in turn opens up new possibilities for the self. In his poems, dealing with the past seems to try to increase the level of emotion in order to open up the possibility of real experience.

Work (selection)

Poetry collections in Korean

• 동두천 Tongduch'ŏn (1979)
• 머나 먼 곳 스와니 Far Away Swanee (1988)
• 물 건너는 사람 The Man Who Crossed the Water (1992)
• 푸른 강아지 와 놀다 Playing with a Blue Pooch (1994)
• 바닷가 의 장례 Funeral by the Sea (1997)
• 길 의 침묵 Silence of the Street (1999)
• 바다 의 아코디언 The Accordion of the Sea (2002)
• 파문 wave pattern (2005)
• 따뜻한 적막 Warm Solitude (2006)
• 꽃차례 inflorescence (2009)

Translations

French

• L'Accordéon de la mer et autres poémes, Le Temps des Cerises (2003) ISBN 978-2-84109-446-2

Awards

• 1992: 김달진 문학상 ( Kim Tal-jin Literature Prize )
• 1992: 소월 시 문학상 ( Sowŏl Literature Prize )
• 1995: 동서 문학상 ( Tongsŏ Literature Prize )
• 2000: 현대 문학상 ( Prize for Contemporary Literature )
• 2001: 이산 문학상 ( Isan Literature Prize )
• 2005: 대산 문학상 시부 문상 ( Taesan Literature Prize in the Poetry category )
• 2006: 이형기 문학상 ( Lee Hyŏng-gi Literature Prize )
• 2007: 지훈상 문학부 문상 ( Chihun Prize in the literature category )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Korean Literature Authors Name Authority Database: 김명인 ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on February 17, 2014 (English) 
2. ↑ 나는 문학 이다 [네이버 지식 백과]: 김명인 Retrieved February 17, 2014 (Korean)
3. ↑ Author Database of LTI Korea: Kim Myeongin ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on February 17, 2014 (English) 

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Kim is the family name here, MyungIn is the first name.