From our discussion on Tuesday a thought grabbed my attention. It was when Dr. Croxall mentioned that this collection of poems was published thirty years ago when the discussion about sexual violence against women and children was not nearly as discussed a topic as it is now. It was still largely a taboo topic or only somewhat acknowledged in media and publications.

The reason this caught my attention is because it is frequently through our culture’s literature that we will find the first commentaries on the difficult topics of the time.  In Winter semester earlier this year I was studying post-1900 literature from Korea. A large focus our study was to artists during and shortly after the colonial period in Korea when Japan occupied the Korean Peninsula.

The misunderstanding that many people have regarding that part of history in Korea (if they know about it at all) is that the Koreans did not welcome the Japanese occupation. It certainly became that way, but in the beginning Japan was welcomed in that they were bringing in with them Western government, economic, and other such advances and practices. In the beginning Korea appeared to enjoy a period of prosperity. However, as time passed the Japanese became more oppressive, censorship was very heavy, and eventually they came to commit many crimes against the Korean people.

When you read the literature from that time though you can see how they would create allegories of the current situation. Warnings about sacrificing their culture and autonomy for apparent benefits during early colonization. After colonial rule became more oppressive authors would make commentary on the Japanese government through metaphor. At first they got away with it but eventually censors caught on and many authors were imprisoned because of it.

So how does this relate to Carol Ann Duffy?

Well it’s mainly the fact that for some reason people are generally more open to accepting a social commentary if it is written indirectly. We don’t like to be told to our face that something is wrong. But somehow we’ll at least turn an ear, or an eye if it’s written in verse.

Yi Kwangsu a Korean author during the Japanese Colonial Period