Jo Jihun (December 3, 1920 – May 17, 1968) was a Korean poet, critic, and activist.”Cho Jihun" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at:

Life

Jo Jihun was born on December 3, 1920, in

Yeongyang Yeongyang County (''Yeongyang-gun'') is an inland Administrative divisions of South Korea, county in the north-eastern area of North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. Geography An isolated area difficult to access, Yeongyang is sometimes called ...

Gyeongsangbuk-do North Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상북도, translit=Gyeongsangbuk-do, ) is a province in eastern South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Gyeongsang province, and remained a province of Korea until the ...

, during the period of Japanese rule. His birthname was Jo Dong-tak. He graduated from Hyehwa College in 1941 with a degree in Liberal Arts. He taught at Odaesan Buddhist College and in 1946, after Korean Liberation, founded the Association of Young Writers (Cheongnyeon munhakga hyeophoe). Jo also served as president of the

Society of Korean Poets The Society of Korean Poets () is a literary organization established in 1957. It is the oldest active poetry organization in South Korea. Every year, the organization awards the Society of Korean Poets Award, and holds the National High School ...

(Hanguk Siin hyeophoe) and from 1947 served as a professor at Korea University. Jo Jihun was also the first head of the Korea University National Culture Research Institute. He died on May 17, 1968. Jo Jihun's birthplace is preserved in Irwol-myeon in Yeongyang. A memorial to him stands on Namsan in Seoul.

Work

Of Jo Jihun's writing, the

Korea Literature Translation Institute The Literature Translation Institute of Korea ( ko, 한국문학번역원, LTI Korea, formerly known as Korean Literature Translation Fund) was founded in 1996 by the Government of South Korea with the aim of promoting Korean literature and cultu ...

writes:

:Fine classical beauty of Korea expressed in this work evokes within the reader a feeling of peace and tranquility. "The Grief of Phoenix" (Bonghwangsu), while keenly describing several secrets of the architectural beauty of the palace, contrasts those who held sovereign power in the Joseon era with the intellectuals of the colonial period, exposing the pain and tragic feelings of governed classes. These first poems of Cho Jihun, capturing the lyrical expression of Korea's traditional and national consciousness, are contained in 'The Blue Deer Anthology' (Cheongrokjip), a joint collection shared with two others,
Pak Tu-jin Pak Dujin (, 10 March 1916 – 16 September 1998) was a Korean poet. A voluminous writer of nature poetry, Pak Dujin is chiefly notable for the way he turned his subjects into symbols of the newly emerging national situation of Korea in the seco ...
and
Park Mok-wol Pak Mok-wol (, 6 January 1916 – 24 March 1978) was an influential Korean poet and academic. Personal life He was born Pak Yeongjong on January 6, 1916, in Moryang Village, Seo-myeon, Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, in present-day South ...
.

:Directly after Liberation, contemporary Cho Jihun emphasized that only those who guarded a purely poetic aesthetic could be considered poets, and asserted that the protection of individual freedom and the quest for the liberation of human nature was the essence of poetry. This literary purity and nationalistic fervor are proclaimed in the poet’s patriotic voice in his anthology, 'Standing Before History' (Yeoksa apeseo). The work criticizes, with a lucid historical consciousness, the political corruption and social irrationality engendered by the national division and internal strife of the day. In particular, "Dabuwoneseo" is one of the finest examples of war poetry that keenly depicts the tragic state of internal strife based on a personal experience.

The Nun's Dance

Jo Jihun's early love of Korean tradition is expressed in his poem "The Nun's Dance" (승무(僧舞). The origin of the dance antedates the introduction of Buddhism into Korea and expresses the traditional Korean philosophy of the harmony of heaven and earth. Popularly, however, it is taken to represent the inner conflict of an apostate nun, or the sorrow of a beautiful woman's renunciation of her erotic past, which the poet references. The dancer Han Yong-Suk used to claim that it was her performance which inspired the poet, after he had watched it many times.Lee-Kyong-hee, “Epitome of Korean Folk Dance” in ''Moving History/Dancing Cultures'', Wesleyan University 2001
pp.174-6
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Works in Translation

* ''Brother Enemy'' (한국전쟁 시선집)

Works in Korean (partial)

Criticism * A Theory on History of Korean Culture Anthologies * The Blue Deer * Short Lines over Grasses:풀잎 단장(斷章) * Selected Poems of Jo Jihun * Stand Before History * Lingering Resonance * Stylish Antique Costumes:고풍의상(古風依裳) Essays * Leaning against the Window * Poetry and Life * Theory of Integrity * Aesthetics of Rocks.

Awards

*Literature Prize of the

Free Writers' Association Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procure ...

, 1956

References

External links

Yeongyang Jihun Literary House
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jo, Jihun 1920 births 1968 deaths South Korean male poets 20th-century South Korean poets 20th-century male writers