[Literary Criticism] An (In)Appropriate Encounter Toward What Is Humane: Many Instances of “Two People” in Kim Kitae’s Short Stories / Kwon YoungBin
The Quarterly Changbi 206, Winter 2024
Abstract
“Literary Criticism” presents an article by Kwon YoungBin, an emerging critic. Noting the unique set-up of “two people” found in Kim Kitae’s works, Kwon argues through a careful analysis of individual works that such fictional set-up can be “a political act, which reorganizes the scale of humanity” in the Anthropocene, evidenced through the climate crisis. While meticulously examining how the minimal scale of “two people” is created and what gaps exist between them, Kwon points out a new order that this scale and character of solidarity create in concrete lives. The meeting and encounter that becomes closer, the darker and cramped a place is, gives us a fresh perspective.