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How Korean SF tells the story of 'Gwangju in 80'

  • Journal of Popular Narrative
  • 2024, 30(3), pp.53-87
  • DOI : 10.18856/jpn.2024.30.3.002
  • Publisher : The Association of Popular Narrative
  • Research Area : Interdisciplinary Studies > Interdisciplinary Research
  • Received : September 7, 2024
  • Accepted : October 18, 2024
  • Published : October 31, 2024

Lim Taehun 1

1성균관대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

There are only a handful of examples of Korean SF that talk about 'Gwangju in 1980'. However, 'Gwangju SF in 1980' is crucial in the sense that it has been identified at every major stage of political and social change since 1980. There are three main questions that this study addresses. How does the imagination that links '5･18' to 'SF' relate to and manifest in the changing social structure? To this end, we trace the emergence of '5･18 imagination' as a potential creative capacity. Why are narratives that imagine a 'Gwangju with 5･18 erased' either shunned or unable to escape political contamination even when they try? How does the sf that narrates 'Gwangju in 1980' differ from the so called non SF literature of Lim Chul woo, Yoon Jung mo, Hong Hee dam and others? The novels studied are Chae Young joo's Rogue in Time (1993), Kim Serang's ARMOR'S STORY (1993), Kang Yoo han's Return 1979 (2009-2011) and Kim Hee sun's Book of Muhan (2017). The trend line shows the changes in the terminology surrounding '5･18' from 12 December 1979 to 18 May 1980, the response of the academic publishing industry after the appeasement phase in 1984, the June Uprising and the revision of the linear system, the changes in policy towards 5･18 and reunification by regime, the birth of the Moon Min government in 1993 and the fall of the Hana Party, the policy of correcting history, and various controversies surrounding 5･18 from the turn of the century to the millennium. The methodology of this study is extrapolation, which recognises various controversies surrounding 5･18 as trend lines, and backwards calculates the trend of history leading to the occurrence of 'Gwangju SF in 1980'. To outline the process by period, in the 1980s in Korea, the idea of combining "5･18" with "SF" was not possible. The turning point came in 1993. In March 1993, Chae Young joo's Rogue in Time and Kim Serang's Armor's Story were published in the March and April 1993 issues of ‘ Chwimiga 취미가’. During the period of the People's Government and participatory government, the convergence of 'Gwangju in the 80s' and 'SF' was less pronounced. Paradoxically, it was revived during the Lee Myung bak and Park Geun hye administrations. Kang Yoo han's alternate history novel Return 1979, which renews the '5･18 imagination' from a right wing perspective, was serialised during this period (2007-2011). In 2017, the first year of the Moon Jae in administration following the impeachment of President Park Geun hye in a candlelight protest, Kim Hee sun's The Book of Muhan is published. I would like to approach '5･18 Imagination' as a discovery of SF that considers the 'slit' that is possible when it does not fall within the realm of the state or institutionalised academia, the 'slit' that does not allow it to get lost in a list of facts, interpretations and emotions that must be included.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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