21st Century Korean American PoetryThe First Decade

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The main purposes of this essay are to compile a bibliography of all the book-length collections of English-language Korean American poetry that have been published in the U.S. through 2017, to outline some possible means of categorizing or classifying the books, and to briefly introduce the work of each poet who published his or her first collection in the first decade of the 21st century. In suggesting various possibilities for categorizing these poets, I insist that none of those possibilities are definitive or absolute. From 1972 to 2017, 47 Korean American poets published 84 collections of poetry, 17 in the 20th century, 27 from 2000 to 2009, and 40 from 2010 to 2017. Key suggestions for classification include a poet’s generation in America, gender, themes, content, and aesthetic choices. The fruitful diversity of Korean American poetry reflects the state of American poetry in general. The extent to which the poets use or ignore their Korean heritage is part of that larger diversity but also shows a unique place in the various poetic and intellectual communities to which the writers might belong.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. Introduction
• Ⅱ. Contingent Classification Ⅱ and Categorization
• Ⅲ. The Century Opens
• Ⅳ. Adoptee Poetics
• Ⅴ. The Decade Ⅴ Develops and Closes
• Ⅵ. To Be Continued: Ⅵ A Brief Conclusion
• Works Cited