Korean cartoonist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim achieved international recognition with the publication of Herbs, graphic novel that collected the experience of women kidnapped in their country as sexual slaves for the Japanese army during World War II. In The wait (Reservoir books), The author now addresses the pilgrimage of that generation of women who suffered the subsequent civil war that would culminate in the current separation of the two Koreas.. We talked to her about her work. G.LEON
Both Herbs as The wait have found a great international reception. Has this recognition surprised you?? How have you received it?
Well, I have experienced it with great surprise and, above all, with much happiness. I am very happy.
The two graphic novels tell very particular events in the history of your country. Relating it to the above, How do you think these very particular facts connect with the Western reader??
I wanted to establish a dialogue. For me it is a way to cross or share the history of Korea, of my town, to tell a general story that would appeal to everyone. It's not exactly my story., but I use the history of my country, which is the one I know and, through that, I speak to a global audience, more general. After all, Grass It's a women's story, and that means it can be read by everyone. Y The wait It's a story of separation, of a family breakup.
It is not the first time that his work tells certain historical events. What drives you to do this memory exercise??
Bueno, In the end it's about establishing a small connection with my own family, with my mother and with my father. Y, through them, who are already very old, I have had access to the memory of that time.
Both Grass as The wait, They are a portrait of the situation of women of the time. In The wait, your last job, You tell how women's lives were socially conditioned. That look back, to the past, How would you project it into the present?? What interest do you think it has for the current reader??
In the end, Korea is a society that is still very patriarchal. Little by little, however, more activists are emerging, more movements in favor of women's rights. There are more and more feminist associations that support this type of change. At the same time, more and more women writers are emerging, more women who generate culture. Before there was a great separation between these two worlds of men and women, and these things were not talked about. But now there is more talk and these types of stories can be shared. There are still many bullying problems in Korea, of murders that are sexually motivated, gender. In the end, stories like The wait o Grass They are stories that connect with these experiences that women are having in Korea or in the world..
In both jobs, but especially in The wait, There is a clear distance between historical events and intimate life, more modest, of the characters, as if you wanted to separate them. I am referring to the indifference of political power for what the ordinary individual suffers and, in this case, the woman.
Generally, as people, we tend to think that we have no relationship with history. That history is foreign to us, What do we have to think about in our daily lives?, that we have to think about how to get ahead as normal people, let's say. But, in the end, for all people, our life is inscribed in that story. That means that, in the end, we can't separate it. It's like the family thing. If my parents are not there, I don't have a life either. I can't live. Thus, If you don't have a history, you don't have a present either..
As you said, The question of family forms the emotional and plot point in The wait. in your novel, That family seems to have a lot of contact. The daughter lives very close to the mother, For example. in the west, This family model seems to be dismantling. What role does the family play?, both in your life and in your work?
The same thing happens in Korea., The traditional family is disintegrating. Before, The idea was that the parents had to live with the rest of the family, they had to be together. Now it's not like that anymore. Although family still matters, there are more and more single-family families, people who live alone. The grandparents live alone and the children often do not marry either and, therefore, they live alone.
Another relevant element of the two novels is that contrast between old age and youth.. In your two novels there is a co-protagonism between a young woman and another who is already in old age.. Even when we go to the past, that image of youth of the old woman is present. I think there is a contrast there., also graphic, very deliberate. Can it be said that there is an attempt to recover the lost youth of these characters??
Yeah, I see it as communication, like a conflict between the past and the present. I wanted to show it as a direct conflict, to be seen very clearly.
A very suggestive element of your novels is the narrator's point of view.. More than a story, is someone who tells a story that we see illustrated by images. How was the work of building the story? Why did you choose that point of view??
What I wanted was to take the voice of the readers. What I'm trying to do is have the narrator ask what we, as readers, we would like to ask. So I'm the one who asks the protagonists directly what I want to know., and they, then, they answer me. A dialogue is thus established between the reader and the narrator.. I act as a mediator between both.
Another fundamental element of both novels is the landscape.: the forests, the trees, the natural places that the characters travel through on their pilgrimage, etc. What relevance does this landscape have in your work??
I knew the victims of those events, and I went to the places where things happened. They are places where many tourists go, They are meeting places, both the house where the protagonist of Herbs like other sites of historical relevance. There are many people who are unaware of the war stories behind many of these places., but they do remember nature, The landscapes. When I arrived at those places, it was like the line, the rest of what had happened, especially in nature. That's why I give importance, because it is what remains of what happened.
Another peculiarity of your novels is the transmission of physical sensations. The cold of winter, the exhaustion of the characters faced with a situation, etc., They are part of the narrative. It seems to me to be a very difficult detail to convey graphically.. How did you approach it when approaching it??
Although the record of facts or ideas remains, what remains is the body. And for me the registration of that body was very important..
The wait has a strong autobiographical element. Generally, This element awakens a kind of modesty in the author before the exhibition of his own life.. How have you dealt with that?? How did you choose what was left outside or inside the story??
In The wait I considered a lot whether to write a directly autobiographical story or construct a fictional story.. In Grass the protagonist is a person who tells his story directly. That's why I didn't have the need to build a fiction, because she herself had decided to talk about the subject. But in The wait, the people I interviewed were very close, even my own mother. That's why I decided to fictionalize it a little, to create some distance. They were people around me who told their story without dedicating themselves to it., contrary to what was happening, For example, with the protagonist of Grass, who is a renowned activist. My family still lives in North Korea and it is dangerous to talk about this directly..
What power do you give to art when it comes to provoking a change in social consciousness on all these issues??
I get asked a lot. Can I change the world with this work? In what direction? Don't know, but I'm going to continue telling my story.
Is there a possibility of reunion between the two Koreas?
Right now the relationships are broken. It is a very difficult situation. For me the most important thing is that these conversations be resumed.
The symbolic, the allegorical is another element that is part of the story. In The wait, For example, we see that image of a tree with boots at its feet. How do you integrate that element into the narrative??
I did it on purpose because I have another work called Dogs, what is my next job, and those images, sometimes, They are a preview of what is going to come next.. I like to play with symbols from the next novels that are going to arrive to me to leave a kind of trace. (laughter).
Both Grass as The wait They are part of a trilogy, They even follow a certain chronological order. Could you tell us something about that third story?? How will it complement your two previous novels??
Dog, the novel I'm going to release next, It's a separate story, that has nothing to do with these two. Now I'm working on another story that will be the one that ends the trilogy.. everything is connected, but I don't want to tell you if it will follow a chronological order.. We will have to wait (laughter).
