#herstealth

Na Hyeseok was a Korean feminist, poet, writer, painter, educator, and journalist. Her pen name was Jeongwol. She was the first female professional painter and the first known feminist writer in Korea.

As a young woman, Na was known for her high spirits and outspokenness, making it clear she wanted to be a painter and an intellectual, rejecting the traditional “good wife, good mother” archetype.

Her major written work, Kyonghui (경희), published in 1918, concerns a woman’s self-discovery and her subsequent search for meaning in life as a “new woman;” it is the first feminist short story in Korean literature.

In 1919, she participated in the March 1st Movement against Japanese rule. She was jailed for this, and the lawyer hired by her family to represent her soon became her husband.

She challenged the patriarchal social system and male-oriented mentality of Korean society at the time. In “A Divorce Confession”, Na criticized the repression of female sexuality; stated that her ex-husband had been unable to satisfy her sexually and refused to discuss the issue; and finally she advocated “test marriages” where a couple would live together before getting married to avoid a repeat of her unhappy marriage. It was “A Divorce Confession” that ruined Na’s career as her views were regarded as scandalous and shocking as in traditional Korean Confucian culture premarital sex was regarded as taboo and women were not to speak frankly of their sexuality.

Unable to sell her paintings, essays or stories, Na was reduced to destitution and spent her last years living on the charity of Buddhist monasteries.

Her fate was often used to scold young Korean woman who had literary or artistic ambitions; “Do you want to become another Na Hye-sok?” was a frequent reprimand to daughters and younger sisters. However, she has recently been acknowledged in Korea for her artistic and literary accomplishments.