
Photo courtesy of Jimin Kang
Jimin Kang '21 just published a Spanish-language piece called "Mi madre y yo" in the prestigious Casapaís literary journal. It is about her experience reading and reflecting on Don Quixote with her mother.
About the inspiration for the piece, Kang said, "I remember sitting in my college library [during graduate study at Oxford] trying to do some readings for class when I was filled with a feeling of absurdity; for a moment I got a birds-eye-view of myself and thought how wonderful it was, how tremendously fortunate, that I had the privilege of waking up every day to read and write what I love at one of the oldest institutions in the world. The thought instantly switched to my parents, and how I wished I could share this joy with them; but how could I, I wondered, when I had hardly described to them my own research interests before? This push-pull feeling of joy and remorse hit me quite strongly that day, and I began writing what would become 'Mi madre y yo.' I ended up reading a self-translated English version of the text to my coursemates during my week to present in class. That week, we were talking about translation and identity, and after having talked to my coursemates about the ways we wanted to bring our personal lives into the classroom, I decided that it would be a great opportunity to bring my mother into the classroom for the first time as well. This essay will always hold special meaning for me, because it gave me the opportunity to have a picture of me and my mother (the day she moved me into Princeton!) up on the screen in front of my class in Oxford, and to have her in that same space with me."
Congratulations Jimin!
Read the essay in Casapaís.