Kim Ja-rim
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kim Ja-rim | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 김자림 |
| Born | August 21, 1926 |
| Died | September 26, 1994 (aged 68) |
| Occupation | |
| Language | Korean |
| Alma mater | Pyongyang Normal School (dropped out of Korean language department) |
| Period | 1959–1991 |
| Genre |
|
| Notable works | Iminsun[a] |
| Spouse | Yang Myong-mun |
Kim Ja-rim[b] (21 August 1926 – 26 September 1994) was a Korean playwright, essayist, and teacher. She was the first professional Korean female playwright.
Her childhood name was Kim Chŏngsuk.[c][d]
Kim was born in Pyongyang during the period that Korea was under Japanese rule. She was the third daughter of nine children. Her father was a professor of pharmacy whose family followed traditional Confucian principles, and her mother was a Christian elementary school graduate. When she was young, Kim's mother was ill, so she was raised in "an enlightened and liberal environment" by her maternal grandmother.[1]: 193–194
After dropping out of Pyongyang Normal School, she worked as a teacher in Pyongyang before moving to Seoul in 1949. She married the poet Yang Myong-mun in 1952, marrying for love rather than a traditional arranged marriage.[1]: 195 She continued to work as a teacher before making her debut in 1959 as a playwright with Dolgae-baram,[e] a one-act play published by Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's oldest daily newspaper.[2]: 84
Work
Kim was the first professional Korean female playwright, among a group of others who wrote and had their work performed beginning in the 1960s, called the 'first generation of women playwrights' by scholar Lee Mi Won.[2][3] According to Kim, she chose a career in drama because she believed in the social functions of art to "lead culture, purify emotion, and reveal humanity."[1]
In 1959, she published her debut one-act play, Dolgae-baram.[e] She received sharp criticism for it, the play being dismissed as a "common love story."[2]
In 1965, she established the Women's Theater (Yoin Kukchang), a theatre company with the intention of "awakening" women through plays that dealt with women's issues from a female perspective.[1]: 195
Kim was the first female playwright to stage a play in the National Theater of Korea, her 1966 play Iminsun,[a] which is considered to be her magnum opus. It features more than 28 characters on stage, and depicts a Korean farming community trying to move to Brazil to make more money.[2]: 86–87
An anthology of her early plays was published in 1971, also titled Iminsun.[a][4] This collection includes her 1970 one-act Hwa-don.[f][2]
As of 1984, she had produced twenty plays, five radio and TV dramas, and one novel.[1]: 192
