The Korean War, Memory, and Nostalgia

Abstract

In his article "The Korean War, Memory, and Nostalgia" Won-Chung Kim investigates how the imagination of (im)migration still governs the consciousness of the Korean people by examining Wonil Kim's 1979도요새에 관한 명상 (Dreaming of the Snipe / Meditation on a Snipe) and Hui-jin Kang's 2011 유령 (The Ghost). Because of the war as many as ten million Koreans were displaced and separated from their families and they struggle with war trauma. Won-Chung Kim's analysis of the two texts suggests the interconnectedness of life writing and the trauma of war. Further, as the recent surge of the North Korean defectors shows, the (im)migration of the Korean War diaspora and inter-Korean (im)migration is still an ongoing process. These (im)migrants' life writing demonstrates that memory works in an opposite way for each group providing a lifeline through which the war diaspora sustains life while hindering the defectors in relocating themselves to the South successfully.