Writing the American Novel With Korean History : Linda Sue Park"s The Kite Fighters and A Single Shard

Writing the American Novel With Korean History : Linda Sue Park"s The Kite Fighters and A Single Shard

&nbsp;&nbsp;Linda Sue Park, a Korean American writer, was awarded a Newbery Medal for her novel, A Single Shard, in 2002. Park represents the story of the Korean potters in the kingdom of Kory？ from a children&quot;s point of view in the fiction In her Newbery Medal acceptance speech, Park considers her novel as an "American" novel even though she uses Korean history as the subject matter for her fiction. This essay examines Linda Sue Park&quot;s The Kite Fighters and A Single Shard in order to support her claim of "Americanness" in her works and explore the possible role of Korean history in the American fiction.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;First, Linda Sue Park uses the New Year&quot;s kite festival in the fifteenth century Chosun as the central event in The Kite Fighters (2000). This novel is a coming-of-age story which deals with the rivalry and love between two brothers, Kee-sup and Young-sup. Park uses Korean culture to reveal the characters&quot; identity or the relationships between characters.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Second, in A Single Shard (2001), Park presents the human relationship between characters with Korean history and culture, using the story of twelfth century Korean celadon pottery-making. She emphasizes the importance of trust, respect, self-esteem, and love in human relationships. Also, Park underscores the significance of having and fulfilling a dream for the protagonist, Tree-ear.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;In Park&quot;s works, Kee-sup and Young-sup in the fifteenth century as well as Tree-ear in the twelfth century are characters who seem to be alive in the present. Although the national and cultural concepts of both novels are different from each other, their shared interests in framing a Korean identity for their protagonists make them relevant to American children in the present. Park stresses the necessity of expanding the sense of "Americanness" in this multicultural world. She seems to argue that, in multicultural America, Korean history and culture should be easily integrated as a part of an American definition of the "self." Therefore, Korean history plays the role of emphasizing differences in American ethnic subcultures as parts of a collective American identity. Writing the American children&quot;s novel with Korean history, Park dreams to eliminate the "otherness" from her young readers&quot; awareness of minority culture as they grow up.