@article{ART003258524},
author={JU-HYEON KIM},
title={Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry},
journal={인문논총 },
issn={2005-6222},
year={2025},
volume={68},
pages={55-81}
TY - JOUR
AU - JU-HYEON KIM
TI - Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry
JO - 인문논총
PY - 2025
VL - 68
IS - null
PB - Institute for Human studies, Kyungnam University
SP - 55
EP - 81
SN - 2005-6222
AB - Lee Seon-gwan, known for his environmental poem “Doksudae” (1975), devoted his entire life to writing environmental poetry. Across five volumes of poetry, including his posthumous collection, he addressed a wide range of issues such as the Chernobyl disaster, victims of domestic and international industrial accidents, and the division of Korea. Based on the recurrent themes of ‘global consciousness’ and disability identity in his work, an analysis of his environmental poetry reveals that his ‘global consciousness’ corresponds to the concept of ‘ecology–deep ecology,’ distinct from the notions of Global or Glocal.
This global consciousness is rooted and modulated in the ambivalence of ‘the global village–Masan’ where he lived (polluted modernity/community-based place), with its core principle being the “equivalence of life.” Meeting with his disability identity, this global consciousness enabled him to move beyond an early sociocultural complex over an ‘inferior body’ and to form a political and cultural identity. Here, his sense of solidarity with contemporary environmental thinkers plays an important role.
The forcibly divided Korean Peninsula is one of the key sites where this global consciousness emerges.
These poems draw on national and agrarian cultural motifs to express a political disability identity aimed at healing damage and recovering wholeness. In contrast, Chernobyl appears as a global village marked by barrenness produced by science and technology. Yet the poet overcomes the fear of extinction to bear witness to the suffering of ‘child’ victims of the disaster and to warn of the possibility of such a catastrophe erupting globally. In the Chernobyl cycle, this recursive structure returns once again to the children of the Korean Peninsula where he lives.
Finally, his environmental poems embody his cultural disability identity as a disabled poet and primary caregiver. The practices of caregiving and writing environmental poetry together enact an ethic of care for nature, which the poet realized in his life and work.
KW - Lee Seon-gwan’s environmental poetry;disability identity;Noksaek Pyeongnon;;Chernobyl disaster;Korean ecopoetry
DO -
UR -
ER -
JU-HYEON KIM. (2025). Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry. 인문논총 , 68, 55-81.
JU-HYEON KIM. 2025, "Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry", 인문논총 , vol.68, pp.55-81.
JU-HYEON KIM "Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry" 인문논총 68 pp.55-81 (2025) : 55.
JU-HYEON KIM. Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry. 2025; 68 55-81.
JU-HYEON KIM. "Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry" 인문논총 68(2025) : 55-81.
JU-HYEON KIM. Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry. 인문논총 , 68, 55-81.
JU-HYEON KIM. Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry. 인문논총 . 2025; 68 55-81.
JU-HYEON KIM. Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry. 2025; 68 55-81.
JU-HYEON KIM. "Global Village Consciousness and Disability Identity in Lee Seon-gwan’s Environmental Poetry" 인문논총 68(2025) : 55-81.
