Azalea 17: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture

This issue presents special features on women writers, particularly those who emerged from the “Feminism Reboot” of the 2010s. Korean literature in the 20th century was dominated by men, but that changed in the 1990s after democratization and the rise of the economy. If you read literary magazines from the 1990s, you will find that names of women writers on the contents pages are strikingly more numerous than those of men. This trend has continued for almost three decades now and it is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, as long as Korean women writers are responding to Korean society, which keeps women in an inferior position. “Feminism Reboot” was one of the critiques of the resilient patriarchal system in Korea.

Personal income in South Korea has recently overtaken that of Japan. South Korea's rise is not only economic, but also cultural. Pop culture fans, including many young people around the world, are fascinated by Korean culture and new works coming out of South Korea. The popularity of Korean language programs at universities around the world has gone beyond the limits of what those universities can accommodate. And yet, by any standard, it is still undeniable that women in South Korea are victims of serious social inequality.