earticle

영어

To investigate how Korean American writers are rewriting the Korean American male, this essay first examines the linear narratives by such early writers as Younghill Kang, Induk Pahk, Richard Kim, Peter Hyun and Ty Pak. Whereas Induk Pahk subscribes to the stereotypical view of Korean men, other writers contextualize the behaviors of their Korean male characters in order to subvert the stereotypes. After briefly reviewing how second-generation Korean American writers handle their Korean male characters, this paper then explores the ways in which some writers use effective strategies to rewrite the Korean American men. Included in the discussion are the rotating narrative in Ronyoung Kim’s Clay Walls and the fluid narrative in Cathy Song’s “Easter: Wahiawa, 1959” and Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker. In Ronyoung Kim’s Clay Walls, in which three major characters take turns to narrate the story, the rotating narrative strategy works effectively to rehabilitate Korean American masculinity and at the same time address the issue of race and gender. In Cathy Song’s poem, the narrator describes the father figure in a way anybody would see him-a poor immigrant laborer from Asia; afterwards, however, the narrator gives the father figure a human dimension by portraying him as an emotional being complete with a past and a family. In Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker, similarly, the narrative is constructed to manipulate the audience to see the Korean American father from the American-born son’s fluid point of view, a son who as a young man detests his father but later understands him as he matures.