This article attempts to explore some relationships, on literary as well as personal levels, between Younghill Kang, one of the forerunners of Korean American literature, and Yim Hwa, who played a very active role in modern Korean literature. It argues that Kang, who worked for the U. S. military government immediately after the end of World War Ⅱ, might have met in Seoul Yim Hwa, the leftist poet-turned-critic, whom Kang regarded as `one of the greatest writers in modern Korean literature.` While Kang stayed in Seoul, Yim Hwa dedicated himself to the restoration of Korean culture long suppressed by Japanese. This article further argues that Kang lauded Yim for his theory of what is called `literary grafting.` In several writings, Yim advanced a profound and somewhat provocative theory that modern Korean literature was a form of `grafting` of modern Japanese literature, which in turn had been of the `grafting` of western literature in Meiji and Daisho periods. In addition, this article maintains that both Younghill Kang and Yim Hwa tried to expand Korean literature by going beyond the narrow boundary of national literature. For example, Kang agreed with Yim`s view L that any literary works written by Korean writers-including works written even in Chinese characters-should be categorized as Korean literature. This article comes to the conclusion that Kang and Yim share much in common as far as literary, and even political, views are concerned.
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