@article{ART002295735},
author={Bae, Gaehwa},
title={A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs},
journal={Chunwon Research journal },
issn={2636-1205},
year={2017},
number={11},
pages={209-236}
TY - JOUR
AU - Bae, Gaehwa
TI - A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs
JO - Chunwon Research journal
PY - 2017
VL - null
IS - 11
PB - Chunwon Research Society
SP - 209
EP - 236
SN - 2636-1205
AB - This study is one of case studies on “feminization of migrant” as a global phenomenon and female migrants’ transnational subjectivity, mainly focusing on Hyeonseo Lee’s English memoir The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story (William Collins: 2015). This study sheds light on a female North Korean defector’s characteristic as not a refugee or victim-subject but a “transnational subject” who survived through border-crossing and several name changes. After escape from North Korea, Lee renamed herself in five times to hide the North Korean identity, disguising herself with fake identities of a few Korean Chinese. By buying or changing citizenship, she promoted her social status (or exchange value) symbolized by jobs and incomes higher than before. Lee felt herself as an exile or ‘non-entity’ in China, trying to recover her identity through immigration to South Korea. But Lee found that North Koreans hided their identities for avoiding discriminations toward them, and assimilated themselves to ethnicized citizenship of South Korea. Unlike other North Korean settlers, she decided to be ‘a stranger’ in South Korean society. Later, when rescuing her family from North Korea, she had a chance to glance a transnational community based on unconditional “love for humanity.” Now she considers herself as not a South or North Korean but a global citizen, and from this standpoint advocates human rights of both North Korean people and defectors. Hyeonseo Lee’s memoir shows new type of transnational subject and a possibility to think human rights not from a state based citizenship but from global citizenship.
KW - North Korean;defectors;cross-borderland;transnational;subject;exchange value;human rights;global citizen;stranger
DO -
UR -
ER -
Bae, Gaehwa. (2017). A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs. Chunwon Research journal , 11, 209-236.
Bae, Gaehwa. 2017, "A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs", Chunwon Research journal , no.11, pp.209-236.
Bae, Gaehwa "A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs" Chunwon Research journal 11 pp.209-236 (2017) : 209.
Bae, Gaehwa. A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs. 2017; 11 : 209-236.
Bae, Gaehwa. "A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs" Chunwon Research journal no.11(2017) : 209-236.
Bae, Gaehwa. A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs. Chunwon Research journal , 11, 209-236.
Bae, Gaehwa. A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs. Chunwon Research journal . 2017; 11 209-236.
Bae, Gaehwa. A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs. 2017; 11 : 209-236.
Bae, Gaehwa. "A Female North Korean Defector’s Crossing Borderland and Awakening Transnational Subjectivity in Hyeonseo Lee’s Memoirs" Chunwon Research journal no.11(2017) : 209-236.