This article aims at investigating how Younghill Kang, often regarded as the first Korean American novelist, has been evaluated in Korea. While some representative Korean writers and critics have praised Kang`s novels such as The Grass Roof, The Happy Grove, and East Goes West, others have found fault with them. For instance, Lee Kwang Soo hailed The Grass Roof as the first work of Korean literature that contributed to introducing Korea and its life to the world. A left-wing literary critic, Hong Hyo Min, on the other hand, blamed the work for failing to portray Korean life fully enough. Another critic, Han Heuk Koo, joins Hong in taking Kang to a task for indulging in art for art`s sake. On his own part, Younghill Kang mentions Yim Wha as one of the `best known contemporary Korean writers,` probably because they have the idea in common that Korea`s modern literature is fundamentally a `transplanted literature` from Japan. In addition, Kang seems to agree with Yim that Korean literature should include works written in classical Chinese, thus implying that his own works written in English also must belong to Korean literature.
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