NEGOTIATING THE MASTER NARRATIVES OF PROSTITUTION, SLAVERY, AND RAPE IN THE TESTIMONIES BY AND REPRESENTATIONS OF KOREAN SEX SLAVES OF THE JAPANESE MILITARY (1932-1945) A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics By Karen S. Murph, M.S. Washington, DC August 29, 2008 Copyright 2008 by Karen S. Murph All Rights Reserved ii NEGOTIATING THE MASTER NARRATIVES OF PROSTITUTION, SLAVERY, AND RAPE IN THE TESTIMONIES BY AND REPRESENTATIONS OF KOREAN SEX SLAVES OF THE JAPANESE MILITARY (1932-1945) Karen S. Murph, M.S. Thesis Advisor: Heidi E. Hamilton, Ph.D. ABSTRACT In spite of the political and historical controversy surrounding the testimonies of the Korean women forced to be sex slaves of and by the Japanese Military during the Asia Pacific War (1932-1945), their testimonies and allies’ representations of them have not been analyzed from a sociolinguistic perspective. This study examines how the sex slave survivors, commonly referred to as “comfort women,” and their advocates negotiate the competing master narratives (Mishler 1995; Talbot et al. 1996; Bamberg and Andrews 2004) of prostitution, slavery, and rape as they interdiscursively construct them/selves as reliable narrators and credible, prototypical (Rosch 1978; Givón 1989; Violi 2000) victims of sex slavery while refuting the adversarial discourse that postions them as liars and prostitutes. The primary data were six videotaped interviews conducted in Korean by the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women, Inc., and later translated into English and published in Comfort Women Speak: Testimony by Sex Slaves of the Japanese Military (Schellstede 2000). I also examined representations of one of the interviewee’s testimony in English in public discourse. Using the interview data, I examine how one survivor constructs herself as a reliable narrator using negation and explanation and her iii story as credible using involvement and evaluation strategies, such as sound words and constructed dialogue. I apply Labov’s (2006) theory of narrative preconstruction to each survivor’s testimony and examine overlap between the initiating event and scripts of prostitution, slavery, and rape. I find that when a survivor’s testimony activates the prostitution script, she must explicitly refute it by denying she received payment. Finally, I show the ramifications of advocates’ mis/representations of the women in public discourse. The findings can inform all victims of sex slavery and those who advocate on their behalf as they illuminate the penalties of nonconformity to the master discourse governing the narrow and oppressive range of what comprises an appropriate or prototypical victim. This study contributes to the understanding of the delicate balance of framing the survivor as both agentive (empowered) and as a prototypical victim who, in this case, deserves an apology and compensation from the government of Japan. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am especially grateful to my mentor Dr. Heidi Hamilton for staying with this study, even while she was on sabbatical and during all the time I spent “in the trees.” As a mentor, she was a model of keen intellect, enduring patience, and genuine kindness. Without her belief in this project, it would not have materialized. There could not have been a more ideal committee than Dr. Heidi Hamilton, Dr. Deborah Schiffrin, and Dr. Deborah Tannen. Each has given generously of her time, and this study has been greatly improved by integrating their feedback. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be their student over the years. Their collective scholarly works have challenged me to consider the real-life applications of my own work. I thank the entire faculty of the Department of Linguistics, especially those in the Sociolinguistics concentration, for their ongoing mentoring and support. If it were not for Dr. Natalie Schilling- Estes putting my name forward for financial support during the fall 2008 semester, it would not have been possible for me to finish. I also wish to thank other Georgetown faculty members who assisted me with this project. Dr. Bonnie B.C. Oh, as I benefited from her expertise on the military sex slave issue, which helped me better understand the survivors and situate this study in its historical context. Knowing that learning a language is more than mastering its grammar, Dr. In Ku Kim-Marshall encouraged me to trust in my Korean cultural memory and to work with Korean data though my Korean was less than fluent. There are many classmates and friends to thank at Georgetown University. In some way each contributed either directly or indirectly to moving this study forward. I thank Wilma Parker who was the first person who believed I could do this. I thank everyone in Dr. Hamilton’s mentee group, Sylvia Chou, Elisa Everts, Kim Kitae, and Ginny Wake for the useful discussion and comments on the earliest drafts of this work. To those in my study group, Sylvia Chou, Cynthia Gordon, Alla Yelyseiva Tovares, and Najama Al Zidjaly, thank you for accommodating my pace, and letting me off the hook when I needed to be let off it. Finally, it was as stroke of luck to work with Cecelia Castillo-Ayometzi on the Alzheimer’s Research Project; she has always had the gift of calling me at just the crucial moments. I thank my Northern Virginia Community College colleagues in the Division of Languages and Literature, especially Dean Gerald Boyd for creating an environment conducive to my completing this study and those in the Department of ESL for picking up the slack in my absence. I also thank President Dr. Robert Templin and our Provost, Dr. Barbara Saperstone for their commitment to my professional development and approving my leave. To my family at Kwangju University, Professors Wilma Parker, Cho Woohyun, Soh Kyunghee, Pai Moonsook, Kim Sun-mi, Kim Dongok, Jun Dae-soo, Yoo Jae-keun, Lee Young-suk, Chang Soon-real, Lee Young-seok, and Ahn Byung Kyu, now at Chonnom National University, I thank you for seeing my scholarly potential and gently nudging me towards it. I am grateful to the Korea Foundation for a Language Fellowship award; it enabled me not only to study Korean at Yonsei University, but it also made it possible for me to conduct the v ethnographic portion of this study. I thank the staff and my fellow advocates at the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan for all their assistance with my research. I am grateful to Dr. Soh Ok Cha, who sought me out after a Wednesday Demonstration in Seoul, and encouraged me upon my return to the States to volunteer at the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues, Inc. (WCCW). This taught me much and it opened many doors, including meeting the WCCW founder, Dongwoo Lee Hahm, whom I am indebted for providing me with the original video-taped interviews, which serve as the primary data for this dissertation. I am also grateful to DaiSil Kim-Gibson, who shared her interview with Yun Turi, which sparked my inititial interest the grandmother’s life stories. It was a privilege and an honor to meet the survivors, activists, and volunteers protesting at the Wednesday Demonstrations. I appreciate the opportunity I was given to volunteer and live at the House of Sharing, and I thank both the residents and staff for making me feel at home there. Thank you for opening your homes to me, for the meals, walks, conversations, stories, and times of worship we shared. I dedicate this work to you; you are models of human strength and perseverance. I honor the memory of Grandmothers Pak Du Ri, Kim Soon-Duk, Mun Pil-gi, and Kang Duk Kyung. I wish Grandmothers Bae Choon-Hee. Hahn Doe-Soon, Jee Dol-Ree, Kang, Il-Chul, Kim Koon-ja, Kim Soon-Oak, Lee Oak-Sun, Pak Oak-Ryun, Pak Oak Sun, and Yu. Duri continued health and peace. My heartfelt thanks to Pop, one of my first teachers, who with his elementary school education, demonstrated what a person can do if they work hard. And to my Nan, whose “now you listen to your nana” still keeps me on the right track. To Vicki Jean, who is always loving me more from wherever she is in this world. And to my sister, and friend, Gail Anne, who stood beside me during the darkest times. I thank my parents, whose ceaseless prayers have under girded this endeavor from afar. Thank you for teaching me to “finish what you start” and for being patient all these years while I have done so. To my father, who at a particularly low point in this undertaking, told me that Einstein once said that “people love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results” and reminded me, that “what you are trying to do is not chopping wood.” I thank Cindy too, who knows what it means to complete an advanced degree and so could support me in a different, but very important way. To Britta, Alex, Finn, and Teagan, who supported me the way only close family can and are glad that I am “finally” finished. To the Poetry “grrls”—Lawrence Biemiller, Jen Daniels, Katherine Gekker, Michelle Mandolia, Mariah Burton Nelson, and Katherine Williams—my dear, dear friends, I thank you for embracing my tacit involvement style and sustaining me with your presence and poetry. I am grateful for you all and other friends and family for sharing their special places in Greensboro, Vermont, the Shenandoah Valley, and the Rehoboth, Bethany and Duck beaches. To Jen, who understands me and this feat best, I thank you for teaching me the importance of staying connected to people.