Portrayal of women: an analysis of fictional works by Na Hyeseok and Kim Myeongsun

This work aims to analyze the representation of women and the main themes in the fictional works of Na Hyeseok and Kim Myeongsun between 1917 and 1937, and to identify the similarities and differences in their portrayals. This paper does not attempt to homogenize the Korean Women’s experience, but rather to understand some aspects of women’s lives through the lenses of these two writers, who were born in 1896 and lived during the first decades of the 20th century. The analyzed stories in this article are taken from Selected Works of Na Hyeseok, the Korean Pioneer of Women’s Liberation, and Collected Works of the First Korean Female Writer Kim Myeongsun.