DOCSLIB.ORG

Representations of Comfort Women in Transnational Literature

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Representations of Comfort Women in Transnational Literature REPRESENTATIONS OF COMFORT WOMEN IN TRANSNATIONAL LITERATURE By MIN JI KANG A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Min Ji Kang To my family ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank the many people that who have inspired and supported me on this journey. This project would not have been possible without the invaluable guidance of my committee chair Dr. Malini Schueller and the helpful advice of Dr. Leah Rosenberg. I am thankful to my colleagues Lauren Cox, Alyssa Hunziker, Bharati Kasibhatla, and Dr. Yen Loh, for their valuable feedback. My work is also fueled by the insight and energy from my students. I am immensely blessed by the support of my family: Dr. Jin Ho Kang, Kwang Yeon Kim, and Tae Wook Kang, who inspire me more than they know. I also thank Ian Cho, who encouraged me ceaselessly. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................8 2 WOMEN AND NATION: REIMAGINED CHASTITY IN A GESTURE LIFE BY CHANG-RAE LEE, COMFORT WOMAN AND FOXGIRL BY NORA OKJA KELLER, AND DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON BY WILLIAM ANDREWS ................19 Former Comfort Women’s Involvement in Kijich’on prostitution ........................................28 Intersections of U.S. Imperialism and Japanese Imperialism .................................................33 Transnational Connections .....................................................................................................39 3 RESISTANCE IN TRANSLATION: TRANSLATING ILBON'GUN WIANBU, A TRILOGY ON COMFORT WOMEN ...................................................................................42 Women in Base Camps ...........................................................................................................44 Collective Resistance ..............................................................................................................54 4 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................60 LIST OF REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................63 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................67 5 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts REPRESENTATIONS OF COMFORT WOMEN IN TRANSNATIONAL LITERATURE By Min Ji Kang May 2018 Chair: Malini Schueller Major: English Literary depictions of comfort women, an estimated 200,000 women taken from parts of East Asia to serve as sexual slaves during World War II, largely emphasize the victimization of women by the state. While there are many historical accounts and testimonials on comfort women, as well as fictional accounts, there is certainly more work to be done on the ways that these women have been depicted in regard to literary and cultural studies. I move beyond previous notions of victimization by focusing on how individual women deploy strategies of resistance, not by conforming to American and Korean masculine notions of chastity, but by subverting these concepts through advancing their own ideas of womanhood and national cause. I explore notions of Korean nationhood and the symbolic elevation of comfort women as figures of the nation by arguing that elite male nationalists chose the female body as a productive site onto which to project traditional conceptions of chastity. Using the theoretical framework of political and literary scholars Katharine Moon, Chunghee Sarah Soh, and Chungmoo Choi, I explore how the notion of chastity was constructed and disrupted in Foxgirl and Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller, A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee, and Daughters of the Dragon by William Andrews. I also extend my analysis in translating Ilbon'gun Wianbu, a trilogy of Korean texts, 6 which differs from American texts by emphasizing how some women resisted and critiqued imperial conquest through their political cause, individually and collectively. 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In 2017, new negotiations opened between the Japanese government and Moon Jae-in, President of South Korea, to dispute the “irreversible” deal regarding comfort women that Park Geun-hye, the former Korean president who was impeached in 2016, signed with Japan in 2015. This continues a long dispute between South Korea and Japan, over the occurrences during Japan’s occupation of Korea throughout WWII, when an estimated 200,000 women across South Korea, China, Indonesia, Philippines, and the larger part of Southeast Asia were subjected to years of torture and sexual slavery in military base camps. The deal issued a new apology and gave South Korea $8.3 million in funds for the comfort women, after which South Korea could not bring up the issue again. Former president Park was highly criticized for taking the deal, as she ignored women’s wishes to reject it. Surviving women demanded that Japan take legal responsibility for the injustices that occurred. A major issue in the new negotiations was that Japan demanded that the South Korean government not use the term “sexual slaves.” Under the undisclosed terms of the agreement, South Korea would formally refer to the women as “victims of comfort stations of the Japanese military” (Choe). While a reminder that the dispute surrounding comfort women is still ongoing, this debate points to how these women continue to be nationally remembered as “sexual slaves” or victims. However, these terms do not fully show their complex roles during and after WWII. I note the historical trajectory in the victimization of Korean comfort women, mainly tied to concepts of purity and chastity. Ilaria Maria Sala’s article1 in the New York Times notes how “Public discussion about the issue seemed to return, again and again, to the notion that the purity 1 Why Is the Plight of ‘Comfort Women’ Still So Controversial?” (2017). 8 of comfort women had been violated.” More recently, cultural denotations of comfort women have shifted slightly towards portraying the women as martyrs of the nation, seen in public memorials, as well as movies such as I Can Speak (2017), a movie that focuses on a former comfort woman who struggles to learn English in order to speak of her experiences to the Japanese government. Kim Ye Won from YS Times reports2 the move by South Korea’s Department of Foreign Affairs to replace the term wianbu (comfort women) to chonggun hŭisaeng yŏsŏng (woman sacrificed for military service) in labeling the new statues commemorating the women. Kim Min Joo also writes3 in the International Newspaper about a public event, put together by a Young Adults Association in Busan, commemorating comfort women. Public leaders of the association openly referred to the women as hŭisaengja (sacrifice) as well as victims. This shows how, even though there are recent developments in the portrayal of former comfort women, there is still a large focus on them as violated victims and martyrs who were sacrificed. Sala notes how, “Any account that strays from exalting the purported purity of comfort women remains controversial.” By putting the emphasis on comfort women as violated victims, Korea frees itself from blame in the trajectory of exploitation. As Sala states, “This is why for some, comfort women must be represented as having been young and pure, virginal, sex slaves: Anything else would mean wrestling with the far more challenging notion that some of South Korea’s women did sleep with the enemy, literally and metaphorically, and that the rest of the nation may have had something to do with that.” 2 Kim, Ye Won. “Wianbu kirimbiin'ga chonggun hŭisaeng yŏsŏng ch'umobiin'ga? ilbun'gun wianburŭl karik'inŭn myŏngch'ingdŭl” (‘위안부 기림비’인가 ‘종군 희생 여성 추모비’인가? 일본군 위안부를 가리키는 명칭들) 3 Kim, Min Joo. “Ch'ŏngnyŏndŭl chaenŭnggiburo wianbu p'ihaeja ch'umo” (청년들 재능기부로 위안부 피해자 추모) 9 A further look at the ideology behind Korean women’s chastity reveals the hypocritical use of the term by the Korean government. Deliberate forms of exploitation of women by Korea can be traced back to the early Goryeo period (935-1394) of Korean history. Katharine Moon notes how certain women have been trained by the government to perform as entertainers or, kisaeng, for kings and high government officials. Korea’s use of women extends to diplomatic causes in The Comfort Women, as Sarah Soh notes how Korea sent kongnyo˘ (tribute women) to “Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) in China…[and] Chinese rulers of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1662), [continuing] until around 1521” (204). Even in the present, Katharine Moon notes the continued use of women for diplomatic and economic reasons by noting female entertainers in the modern day used for businessmen, politicians and scholars. She says how, “not only kisaeng, but other women also have served as a collective sacrifice for governmental priorities” (40). This is seen through the continued use of Korean women as prostitutes in kijich’on, or American base camps, in Korea after the Korean War.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Yun Mi Hwang Phd Thesis
    SOUTH KOREAN HISTORICAL DRAMA: GENDER, NATION AND THE HERITAGE INDUSTRY Yun Mi Hwang A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2011 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1924 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence SOUTH KOREAN HISTORICAL DRAMA: GENDER, NATION AND THE HERITAGE INDUSTRY YUN MI HWANG Thesis Submitted to the University of St Andrews for the Degree of PhD in Film Studies 2011 DECLARATIONS I, Yun Mi Hwang, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 80,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in September 2006; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2006 and 2010. I, Yun Mi Hwang, received assistance in the writing of this thesis in respect of language and grammar, which was provided by R.A.M Wright. Date …17 May 2011.… signature of candidate ……………… I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree.
    [Show full text]
  • A PARTNER for CHANGE the Asia Foundation in Korea 1954-2017 a PARTNER Characterizing 60 Years of Continuous Operations of Any Organization Is an Ambitious Task
    SIX DECADES OF THE ASIA FOUNDATION IN KOREA SIX DECADES OF THE ASIA FOUNDATION A PARTNER FOR CHANGE A PARTNER The AsiA Foundation in Korea 1954-2017 A PARTNER Characterizing 60 years of continuous operations of any organization is an ambitious task. Attempting to do so in a nation that has witnessed fundamental and dynamic change is even more challenging. The Asia Foundation is unique among FOR foreign private organizations in Korea in that it has maintained a presence here for more than 60 years, and, throughout, has responded to the tumultuous and vibrant times by adapting to Korea’s own transformation. The achievement of this balance, CHANGE adapting to changing needs and assisting in the preservation of Korean identity while simultaneously responding to regional and global trends, has made The Asia Foundation’s work in SIX DECADES of Korea singular. The AsiA Foundation David Steinberg, Korea Representative 1963-68, 1994-98 in Korea www.asiafoundation.org 서적-표지.indd 1 17. 6. 8. 오전 10:42 서적152X225-2.indd 4 17. 6. 8. 오전 10:37 서적152X225-2.indd 1 17. 6. 8. 오전 10:37 서적152X225-2.indd 2 17. 6. 8. 오전 10:37 A PARTNER FOR CHANGE Six Decades of The Asia Foundation in Korea 1954–2017 Written by Cho Tong-jae Park Tae-jin Edward Reed Edited by Meredith Sumpter John Rieger © 2017 by The Asia Foundation All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission by The Asia Foundation. 서적152X225-2.indd 1 17. 6. 8. 오전 10:37 서적152X225-2.indd 2 17.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Santa Barbara Dissertation Template
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by eScholarship - University of California UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Discomforting Neighbors: Emotional Communities Clash over “Comfort Women” in an American Town Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6hz1c8vj Author Wasson, Kai Reed Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Discomforting Neighbors: Emotional Communities Clash over “Comfort Women” in an American Town A Thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Asian Studies by Kai Reed Wasson Committee in charge: Professor Sabine Frühstück, Chair Professor ann-elise lewallen Professor Kate McDonald June 2018 The thesis of Kai Reed Wasson is approved. ____________________________________________ Kate McDonald ____________________________________________ ann-elise lewallen ____________________________________________ Sabine Frühstück, Committee Chair June 2018 Discomforting Neighbors: Emotional Communities Clash over “Comfort Women” in an American Town Copyright © 2018 by Kai Reed Wasson iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have often heard that research projects of considerable length are impossible without the thoughtful input of a host of people. Pursuing this endeavor myself has proven to me that collaboration is absolutely necessary even for a project of this modest magnitude. I would first like to thank my masters committee, Professors Sabine Frühstück, ann- elise lewallen, and Kate McDonald, for bearing with me and providing constructive feedback on such a difficult and sensitive subject. I owe a debt of gratitude for the learning opportunities and financial support afforded to me by UC Santa Barbara’s East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies Department.
    [Show full text]
  • Imperialism (1800-1914) the Industrialized Nations Embarked Upon a Competition for Overseas Empires That Had Profound Implications for the Entire World
    Bringing Korea in to the Classroom: Lesson Plan Name: Dan Harris Lesson Title: The Consequences of Western Imperial Policy in Asia: A Comparison of the Treaty of Kangwha (1876) to the Treaty of Kanagawa (1854) Time Range: 1-2 class periods (approximately 60 minutes) Ohio Standards: Imperialism (1800-1914) The industrialized nations embarked upon a competition for overseas empires that had profound implications for the entire world. This “new imperialism” focused on the underdeveloped world and led to the domination and exploitation of Asia, Africa and Latin America Ohio Benchmarks: 11. Imperialism involved land acquisition, extraction of raw materials, the spread of Western values, and maintenance of political control. 12. The consequences of imperialism were viewed differently by the colonizers and the colonized Grade Level Indicators: History 9 Introduction/Lesson Summary: Emerging on the tail end of the Age of Industrialization (19th Century), the Age of Imperialism (1800-1914) saw the globalization of Western policies, culture, and economics. This was seen as progress by the Western nations and was heralded as the key to “modernizing” the global marketplace. As more nations took part in this global scramble for markets of goods and resources, lesser-developed nations began taking up similar practices as a means of coping (if not competing) with the Imperial powers. According to Asia for Educators: Imperialism: Western and Japanese By the mid-nineteenth century Korea was one of the last Asian holdouts against Western imperialism, which had conquered much of southern Asia and was making inroads on China. Vietnam, which like Korea was a close tributary state to China, had been conquered by the French in the 1860s.
    [Show full text]
  • Mr. Akio Komatsu Is President of the Human, Nature and Science Institute Foundation in Japan Which Is Working for the Creation of "Wa"(Harmony/Peace) Culture
    Interview: Mr. Akio Komatsu is President of the Human, Nature and Science Institute Foundation in Japan which is working for the creation of "wa"(harmony/peace) culture. Q1: Mr. Komatsu, you have been working for international peace for some twenty years. What caused you to work for this goal, not as a politician or a social activist, but as a businessman? A1: After graduating from a technical high school, I worked for eight years developing agricultural machinery. By using deductive, dialectical and inductive methods, I learned how to proceed from inspiration to reality. But my company went bankrupt when I was twenty-six, which caused me to re-evaluate my life. I took a month to sit in Zen meditation and realized that only thing we human beings can be sure of in life is our ultimate death. In contemplation my thinking turned toward how to design my life, face my death and ask myself what I would leave behind when I'm gone. After that, for two years in Osaka I practiced small business, and then went back to Shimane. Shimane is well known in Korea as the prefecture where the observance of Takeshima Day originated. There, with my brother, I started a pump-repairing and electrical parts assembling plant. With our family-company of thirty workers we tried to catch up with and surpass the only electric control-distribution board company in our area. When I was thirty-two I took my first trip abroad and visited Korea, which was then under martial law. While sharing a taxi at night, I got into some trouble because of my Japanese nationality.
    [Show full text]
  • B. 1973 in Seoul, South Korea; Lives and Works in Baltimore, New York, and Seoul
    Mina Cheon CV 2021 Mina Cheon (천민정) (b. 1973 in Seoul, South Korea; lives and works in Baltimore, New York, and Seoul) Mina Cheon is a new media artist, sCholar, eduCator, and activist best known for her “Polipop” paintings inspired by Pop art and Social Realism. Cheon’s practice draws inspiration from the partition of the Korean peninsula, exemplified by her parallel body of work created under her North Korean alter ego, Kim Il Soon, in which she enlists a range of mediums inCluding painting, sCulpture, video, installation, and performanCe to deConstruCt and reConCile the fraught history and ongoing coexistence between North and South Korea. She has exhibited internationally, including at the Busan Biennale (2018); Baltimore Museum of Art (2018); American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC (2014); Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul (2012); and Insa Art SpaCe, Seoul (2005). Her work is in the colleCtions of the Baltimore Museum of Art; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton; and Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul. Currently, she is working on her participation for the inaugural Asia SoCiety Triennial 2020-2021 titled, “We Do Not Dream Alone.” Her digital interactive art piece, EatChocopieTogether.com for global peaCe, was launChed on August 15, 2020 and will remain active for virtual participation as a lead up to the physical exhibition of Eat Chocopie Together at the end of the Triennial. Mina Cheon is the author of Shamanism + CyberspaCe (Atropos Press, Dresden and New York, 2009), contributor for ArtUS, Wolgan Misool, New York Arts Magazine, Artist Organized Art, and served on the Board of Directors of the New Media CauCus of the College Art AssoCiation, as well as an AssoCiate Editor of the peer review aCademiC journal Media-N.
    [Show full text]
  • Emma Honkola Kyra Smith- Stewart Owen Newman
    TLC PUBLISHINGS Broken Korea EMMA HONKOLA KYRA SMITH- STEWART OWEN NEWMAN VINNIE KIM CHAPTER 1 One Step Forward, Two Steps Back It’s quiet- too quiet for the number of people lining the roads. Faces are somber as residents gather to watch the procession. Decorated lanterns line the crowded streets of the capital city of Hanseong (now called Seoul), hanging off of traditional styled concave roofs, as over five thousand soldiers dressed in classic Korean garb accompany large wooden horses that serve as the main attraction in the parade. Although elaborate, this sort of display is appropriate. Queen Min, the empress of Korea and the Joseon Empire is dead and only a spectacle as great as she was could ac- company her to the afterlife. The year is 1897, two years after the queen’s death. The em- princesses of the royal family, unless politics beckoned her to. peror Gojong had only been able to hold the funeral now be- At the age of 20 Queen Min began using her position to influ- cause inner turmoil in Korea and the inability to find her body ence the king and become a powerful political figure. (because her assassins had burned her body and scattered her One of Min’s biggest goals was to modernize Korea. She and ashes) had prevented him from doing so earlier. The funeral King Gojong took trips throughout the 1870s to places like Ja- procession brings thousands upon thousands of mourners- pan, China and even America to research how their education, and some jubilant celebrators- to observe as she goes to the af- military and economic systems worked.
    [Show full text]
  • The Korean Diaspora
    HAUNTING the Korean Diaspora HAUNTING the Korean Diaspora Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War Grace M. Cho UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS Minneapolis • London The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance provided for the publication of this book from the Office of the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at College of Staten Island–City University of New York. A portion of chapter 4 was published as “Prostituted and Vulnerable Bodies,” in Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives, ed. Judith Lorber and Lisa Jean Moore (Cary, N.C.: Roxbury Publishing, 2007), 210–14; reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. Portions of chapters 4 and 5 have been previously published as “Diaspora of Camp - town: The Forgotten War’s Monstrous Family,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 34, nos. 1–2 (2006): 309–31. A shorter version of chapter 6 was published as “Voices from the Teum: Synesthetic Trauma and the Ghosts of Korean Diaspora,” in The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social, ed. Patricia Clough with Jean Halley (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007), 151–69. Portions of chapter 6 were published by Sage Publications as Grace M. Cho and Hosu Kim, “Dreaming in Tongues,” Qualitative Inquiry 11, no. 3 (2005): 445–57, and as Grace M. Cho, “Murmurs in the Storytelling Machine,” Cultural Studies—Critical Methodologies 4, no. 4 (2004): 426–32. Portions of chapter 6 have been performed in “6.25 History beneath the Skin,” a performance art piece in Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the “Forgotten War.” In chapter 2, the poem “Cheju Do” by Yong Yuk appears courtesy of the author.
    [Show full text]
  • Building the Nation: the Success and Crisis of Korean Civil Religion
    religions Article Building the Nation: The Success and Crisis of Korean Civil Religion Andrew Eungi Kim 1 and Daniel Connolly 2,* 1 Division of International Studies, Korea University, Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea; [email protected] 2 Division of International Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul 02450, Korea * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Civil religion refers to a country’s beliefs, symbols, and rituals that bolster national unity and strengthen its citizens’ sense of identity and belonging. However, the literature on civil religion is divided between those who attribute it to bottom-up cultural spontaneity and those who see it as an ideological top-down construction. Moreover, there has been a relative lack of scholarly attention to Korean civil religion. This paper addresses both issues by arguing that a strong civil religion indeed exists in the country and that it has been an important part of the “nation-building” process since the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948. The paper highlights how a succession of authoritarian regimes (1948–1987) successfully mobilized a strong civil religion for political purposes. The resulting civil religion targeted economic growth as the national goal to overcome all social ills, focused on the country’s ethnic and cultural homogeneity to boost national confidence and pride, exalted its traditional religions, especially Confucianism, as repositories of Korean traditional culture, and rendered sacred meanings to national symbols such as the flag and national anthem. Even after democratization, Korean civil religion remains largely ideological, as the Korean government is heavily involved in framing, planning, sponsoring, and promoting the country’s civil religion.
    [Show full text]
  • Analysing the Changing Trajectory of South Korea's ICT Business
    Analysing the Changing Trajectory of South Korea’s ICT Business Environment Nigel Callinan Thesis presented for the award of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisors: Professor Bernadette Andreosso & Dr. Mikael Fernström University of Limerick Submitted to the University of Limerick November 2014 Declaration I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: ___________________________________ I.D No: 10142886 Date: Monday 10th November 2014 2 Abstract This thesis aims to provide a new perspective on the development of South Korea’s Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Business Environment by taking a cross-disciplinary look at the area. Most studies on this subject have tended to remain within the boundaries of a single discipline. In this study, an interdisciplinary approach is taken to trace more of the paths that have influenced the development. This will provide a better understanding of the area and this insight should make it easier for any prospective organisation hoping to enter the Korean market to be successful. In little over two generations, South Korea has transformed from being one of the poorest countries in the world into a global business leader. Currently, Information Technology products are at the forefront of exports from the country and the world’s largest electronics company hails from a city just south of Seoul.
    [Show full text]
  • Hangeul As a Tool of Resistance Aganst Forced Assimiliation: Making Sense of the Framework Act on Korean Language
    Washington International Law Journal Volume 27 Number 3 6-1-2018 Hangeul as a Tool of Resistance Aganst Forced Assimiliation: Making Sense of the Framework Act on Korean Language Minjung (Michelle) Hur Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons Recommended Citation Minjung (Michelle) Hur, Comment, Hangeul as a Tool of Resistance Aganst Forced Assimiliation: Making Sense of the Framework Act on Korean Language, 27 Wash. L. Rev. 715 (2018). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj/vol27/iss3/6 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at UW Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington International Law Journal by an authorized editor of UW Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Compilation © 2018 Washington International Law Journal Association HANGEUL AS A TOOL OF RESISTANCE AGAINST FORCED ASSIMILATION: MAKING SENSE OF THE FRAMEWORK ACT ON KOREAN LANGUAGE Minjung (Michelle) Hur† Abstract: Language policies that mandate a government use a single language may seem controversial and unconstitutional. English-only policies are often seen as xenophobic and discriminatory. However, that may not be the case for South Korea’s Framework Act on Korean Language, which mandates the use of the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, for official documents by government institutions. Despite the resemblance between the Framework Act on Korean Language and English-only policies, the Framework Act should be understood differently than English-only policies because the Hangeul-only movement has an inverse history to English-only movements.
    [Show full text]
  • 6 Korean Dialects: a General Survey
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by SOAS Research Online Chapter 6: Korean Dialects 6 Korean dialects: a general survey Jaehoon Yeon 6.1 Introduction The Korean language is relatively homogeneous and the dialects from different areas can be mutually intelligible to a great extent. Nevertheless, the dialects of Korean exhibit considerable variety in phonology, morphology, and vocabulary. They are finely differentiated into a number of areas based on regional differences. There is no obvious correlation between the modern dialects and the ancient historical divisions of Korea, i.e. the Three Kingdom period. Silla and Paekche roughly coincide with the current southeastern dialect and southwestern dialect respectively, but northeastern, northwestern, central, and Cheju dialects cannot be correlated with any one ancient historical kingdom in Korea. Since Korea is mountainous, the language is quite naturally divided finely into different dialects according to topography. Most scholars seem to agree on six major dialectal zones based roughly on different geographical regions: (1) The northwestern dialects (P‟yŏngan province) (2) The northeastern dialects (Hamgyŏng province) (3) The central dialects (including Kyŏnggi, Hwanghae, Kangwon and Ch‟ungch‟ŏng provinces) (4) The southwestern dialects (Chŏlla province) (5) The southeastern dialects (Kyŏngsang province) (6) Cheju dialect (Cheju island) The dialect used by the Korean community in the Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture of China in Manchuria can be included in the Hamgyŏng dialects because their mutual similarity is due to the early immigration of Hamgyŏng people to that area and their subsequent linguistic contact. The language spoken by Koreans in Central Asia, i.e.
    [Show full text]