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University of California Riverside UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE North Korean Literature: Margins of Writing Memory, Gender, and Sexuality A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature by Immanuel J Kim June 2012 Dissertation Committee: Professor Kelly Jeong, Chairperson Professor Annmaria Shimabuku Professor Perry Link Copyright by Immanuel J Kim 2012 The Dissertation of Immanuel J Kim is approved: _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank the Korea Foundation for funding my field research to Korea from March 2010 to December 2010, and then granting me the Graduate Studies Fellowship for the academic year of 2011-2012. It would not be an overstatement for me to say that Korea Foundation has enabled me to begin and complete my dissertation. I would also like to thank Academy of Korean Studies for providing the funds to extend my stay in Korea. I am grateful for my advisors Professors Kelly Jeong, Henk Maier, and Annmaria Shimabuku, who have provided their invaluable comments and criticisms to improve and reshape my attitude and understanding of North Korean literature. I am indebted to Prof. Perry Link for encouraging me and helping me understand the similarities and differences found in the PRC and the DPRK. Prof. Kim Chae-yong has been my mentor in reading North Korean literature, opening up opportunities for me to conduct research in Korea and guiding me through each of the readings. Without him, my research could not have gotten to where it is today. Ch’oe Chin-i and the Imjingang Team have become an invaluable resource to my research of writers in the Writer’s Union and the dynamic changes occurring in North Korea today. I extend my appreciation to the other North Korean defectors who have helped me frame a different image of the more or less closed society. My dear German colleague Choi Sun-ju has shared with me insights about North Korean film. The librarians at the Center for Information on North Korea graciously iv provided me the necessary tools and materials to conduct my research, particularly Han Ta-sol, Im Ka-ram, and Sin Ŭn-jŏng. Prof. Stephen Epstein helped me through one of my chapters, which was later published in Acta Koreana; Professors Koen de Ceuster and Charles Armstrong provided insightful feedback on my chapters, which I presented at AKSE and AAS. Professors Andrie Lankov and Tatiana Gabroussenko also helped me understand the social life in North Korea. Yoon Min-kyung has been a gracious informant on North Korean art, and finally, Jacco who I thank for being a resourceful friend. Most importantly, I will never forget my wife Angela Kim and my son Nathaniel Kim for being patient with me through the process of writing my dissertation. v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION North Korean Literature: Margins of Writing Memory, Gender, and Sexuality by Immanuel J Kim Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Comparative Literature University of California, Riverside, June 2012 Dr. Kelly Jeong, Chairperson This dissertation examines literary works from North Korea from the 1970s and 1980s, paying particular attention to the way writers express their creativity through the discussion in memory, gender, and sex. To think that North Korean writers are conditioned to produce works that only praise Kim Il Sung and the Party may a short-sighted assessment of their literary practices and culture. Ever since the Fifteenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Central Committee of the Worker’s Party in 1967—where Juche ideology and the monolithic policy were instituted as the guiding principles of every aspect of North Korean life— vi literature, film, and artworks changed to adopt the new system of celebrating Kim Il Sung, the Party, and the nation. Indeed, the writing tradition and culture changed for the members of the Writer’s Union. What was known as propagandist literature became even more tightly controlled under the new decree of the monolithic policy. This monolithic policy gave rise to a singular voice that dominates and eliminates all other voices that may contend the Kim Il Sung regime. Writers were expected to (and in some cases ordered to) comply with the singular voice that celebrates the nation. However, even amid this radical change in North Korea, writing has the power to subvert, satirize, and disrupt the teleology of the grand narrative of the nation-state. This dissertation engages in the power of writing found in moments where the writers discuss the topics of memory, gender, and sexuality. vii Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………….1 1. A New System of Writing……………………………………………….40 The Legend of the Great Family…………………………………...46 Inventing the Discourse of a Kim Il Sung………………………….51 April 15 Literary Production Unit………………………………….57 Immortal History Series and The Year 1932……………………….71 2. Disruptive Memory……………………………………………………....92 Economy of the Father…………………………………………….103 Ritual as the Death Knell of the Patriarchal Discourse……………116 Complexity of the Mother…………………………………………126 3. Song of Sun-hŭi………………………………………………...............139 The Discursive Kinship of the (Great) Family……………………..146 Hidden Hero as the Patriarchal Linguistic System…………………157 Ch’ae Sun-hŭi: The New Linguistic System……………………….166 4. (Un)authorized Sex: Away from the Public Gaze……………………….184 When the Sun Sets and the Lights Dim…………………………….189 Revo-love-tion: Ostensible Expression of Love…………………….213 National Campaigns and Sexuality………………………………....221 viii Party-Sanctioned Sex: Hong Sŏk-chung’s Hwang Chin-i…………226 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..233 Bibliography…………………………………………………….…..259 ix List of Tables Table 1. Immortal History Series: Anti-Japanese Revolutionary Period……………………………………………..74 Table 2. Immortal History Series: Post-Liberation………………………..74 Table 3. Immortal History Series Historical Period and Incident Pre-Liberation…………………………………………..75 Table 4. Immortal History Series Historical Period and Incident Post-Liberation ………………………………………….77 x Preface National Security Law of the Republic of Korea Title 2: Article 7, Section 1 Individuals, who are conscious of the effects of endangering the existence and security of the nation or the basic tenets of the free world democracy and praise, encourage, proliferate or sympathize with antinational groups, their affiliates, or those who receive direct orders from these groups and thereby cause national uprising, will face a sentence of seven years or less. Title 2: Article 7, Section 5 Individuals, who produce, purchase, copy, possess, exchange, distribute, sell, or acquire documents, art, or any literary writings, will face the appropriate sentence.1 I was reading a text in a packed subway in Seoul on my way home after a long afternoon of researching on the fifth floor of the National Library. I couldn’t help but notice an elderly glancing over my shoulder. He recognized that the text I was reading was the Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He let out a guffaw followed by, “My, how times have changed.” Indeed, times have changed in South Korea, where not more than a decade ago, it would have been unimaginable for a South Korean to walk around in public (or sit leisurely in a subway) openly reading a North Korean text. I am not referring to texts about North Korea, but texts from North Korea. Now, the elderly man assumed I was a South Korean citizen because of my appearance, which may have elicited such a response. He did not know I was an American citizen and a Ph.D. student at an American academic institution visiting Korea to conduct research for my dissertation. In fact, I’m 1http://likms.assembly.go.kr/law/jsp/law/Law.jsp?WORK_TYPE=LAW_BON&LAW_ID=A1465&PROM_NO= 11042&PROM_DT=20110915&HanChk=Y xi not sure if his awareness of my background would’ve changed his perception of how much South Korea has changed over the years; it may reinforce it. The “times” I was in, at the time I was sitting in the subway, could not have been a more tenuous situation between the two Koreas since the declaration of nuclear weapons in 2003 and nuclear testing in 2006. The Ch’ŏnan ship sank as a result of an alleged North Korean mine, killing forty-six seamen. Later that year, North Korea announced a prospective successor for Kim Jong Il followed by a heavy shelling of missiles to Yŏngp’yŏng island, raising suspicions of an imminent war. Times were certainly not peaceful for Korea in 2010, but how much of those “times” have really changed? The sinking of the ship and the shelling of missiles saturated news media for weeks, analyzing the events, predicting future events, and preparing for any sort of counter-measures should there be a war. But my greatest shock to all that was happening between the Koreas was the indifferent attitude of most South Koreans, who were more concerned about negotiations with the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) on beef, President Lee Myŏng-bak’s soft stance against the U.S., the lawsuit between Apple and Samsung, the popularity of the Korean Wave (hallyu), etc. That year, Korea commemorated its sixtieth year since the outbreak of the Korean War, and many South Koreans don’t seem to think there will be another one. That is, they feel as though South Korea’s economic growth has somehow ended of the war, and that there are now larger problems to deal with than battling over polemical ideologies. Certainly, times have changed. xii The elderly man’s comment may have derived from his Cold War upbringings, which now has very little leverage in political conversations with the younger generation who couldn’t care less about North Korea, unification, or the recent death of Kim Jong Il. It was precisely at this historical moment, where the waxing of “who cares about North Korea” and the waning of the Cold War mentality exist ever so clearly, that I believed another look at North Korean literature would need to find its “place” in academia in both South Korean and American institutions.
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