Abstract

This study aims to reconstruct the formation of Han Mal-sook’s literary world by integrating oral life-history materials with textual analysis. Multiple rounds of oral interviews were conducted to restore the biographical layers and creative contexts that earlier text-centered research did not fully capture. In the process of weaving together aspects of Han’s life and works that had previously been treated only fragmentarily, the study identifies materials and facts that have not been introduced to academia and newly illuminates dimensions of her literary career that have remained overlooked. In addition to textual analysis, the reconstruction of her formative years, her experiences and reading around the time of her debut, her literary encounters in Busan’s Geumgang Dabang during the refugee period and in Myeong-dong after repatriation, as well as her artistic experiences in traditional music and dance, provides a concrete foundation for understanding the development of her literary and aesthetic vision. This paper also demonstrates that Han Mal-sook possessed a clear feminist consciousness from the beginning of her career and consistently created distinctive female characters who transcended traditional moral norms and prescribed familial roles. By examining oral life-history materials in conjunction with her major works from the 1950s to the 1970s, the study offers an integrated perspective on the internal dynamics and sociohistorical contexts that earlier text-centered scholarship had insufficiently addressed. Ultimately, this research repositions Han Mal-sook as a significant figure in postwar Korean women’s literature and highlights the methodological value of employing oral life-history archives in author-centered literary studies.