Reclaiming Solitude: Single Womanhood and No Ch’ŏnmyŏng’s Poetics of Celibacy

Abstract

Abstract:This article examines the life and poetry of No Ch’ŏnmyŏng (1912–1957), Korea’s first widely recognized female modernist poet, through the lens of celibacy and feminine solitude. While critics and readers have long celebrated No for her lyrical restraint of emotion, she has also been subject to social derision and pathologization for her choice never to marry, both during her lifetime and after her death. Drawing on recent feminist and queer theoretical work on celibacy, this essay reconsiders No’s single womanhood not as a sign of sexual repression or social marginalization, but as a site of political agency and poetic experimentation. Through close readings of No’s poetry—particularly her self-portraiture and depictions of solitude—I argue that she develops a poetics of celibacy that subverts dominant cultural discourses on solitary women.This article situates No’s work within the broader historical context of late colonial and early Cold War Korea, when single women were simultaneously idealized and stigmatized in literature, medicine, and mass media. I trace how No’s poetry challenges these constructions by offering alternative modes of feminine subjectivity rooted in emotional self-sufficiency, aesthetic minimalism, and sensuous detachment. I also explore the persistent tension between solitude and social scrutiny that shaped both her public persona and poetic voice. Ultimately, this essay contends that No Ch’ŏnmyŏng’s celibate lyricism allows us to reimagine female autonomy and relationality outside normative frameworks of marriage and compulsory sexuality, providing a critical resource for thinking through the politics of singlehood in historical and contemporary contexts.