Anxiety of Words: Contemporary Poetry by Korean Women

One of few critical anthologies in print to focus on the major voices in contemporary Korean women's poetry. Contained in the words of these three poets is a critical consciousness of Korean women's lives under patriarchy, capitalism, and neocolonialism. In various ways they each depict, through their poetry, the dehumanization of the body and the oppressed and exploited lives of women who are forced to the fringes of Korean society: women in poverty, women as cheap and exploited laborers, women exploited by the government through state-sponsored sex tourism to attract Japanese men, and women still trapped in the military prostitution of American military camp towns.