@article{ART003260651},
author={Woongjun Chae},
title={The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s},
journal={Journal of Popular Narrative},
issn={1738-3188},
year={2025},
volume={31},
number={3},
pages={489-527}
TY - JOUR
AU - Woongjun Chae
TI - The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s
JO - Journal of Popular Narrative
PY - 2025
VL - 31
IS - 3
PB - The Association of Popular Narrative
SP - 489
EP - 527
SN - 1738-3188
AB - The 1960s in South Korea was an era of ‘yang-seo’ (good books). Publishers engaged in symbolic struggles through the production of ‘yang-seo,’ the government devised systems and policies to promote them, and the public actively participated in reading them. However, even amid the cultural politics of cultivation and the process of cultural modernization centered on ‘yang-seo,’ books stigmatized as ‘ak-seo’ (bad books) were continuously produced and consumed. This study focuses on translated ‘ak-seo’ to describe the process by which they were stripped of cultural legitimacy and to explore their sociocultural significance. To this end, it examines the production and circulation of translated books—particularly ‘ak-seo’—from a media sociocultural history perspective, analyzing related discourses and practices through newspapers, magazines, government documents, and the translated books themselves.
The contemporary criteria for ‘ak-seo’ included vulgarity in content and genre; unethical modes of production and circulation, such as re-translation and piracy; and the Japanese origin of the source culture. Translations of Japanese popular fiction were quintessential ‘ak-seo’ as they met all three criteria, flooding the publishing market after the April 19 Revolution ended the state’s anti-Japanese policy and thereby reactivating colonial trauma. This cultural conflict was reconfigured by the 1965 normalization of diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan. This geopolitical shift reframed the criteria of cultural legitimacy, moving it from the national sentiment of anti-Japanism to the domain of copyright and modern publishing ethics. Simultaneously, this shift exposed the underlying tensions within the ‘yang-seo’ regime—namely, the conflict between the state’s project of cultivation, the market’s commercial logic, and the public’s desire for pleasure.
This article argues that the cultural politics of ‘ak-seo’ were dynamically manifested through the interplay of geopolitical order, the projects of the dominant cultural elite, market logic, and the desires of the reading public. Furthermore, by focusing on the hitherto under-examined ‘ak-seo,’ this study illuminates the limitations and fissures within the ‘yang-seo’ regime, as well as the commercialism and popular desires that operated outside the discursive framework of ‘national culture’ and ‘modernization.’
KW - bad books;translation and publication;cultural politics of Cultivation;cultural legitimacy;1960s
DO -
UR -
ER -
Woongjun Chae. (2025). The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s. Journal of Popular Narrative, 31(3), 489-527.
Woongjun Chae. 2025, "The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s", Journal of Popular Narrative, vol.31, no.3 pp.489-527.
Woongjun Chae "The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s" Journal of Popular Narrative 31.3 pp.489-527 (2025) : 489.
Woongjun Chae. The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s. 2025; 31(3), 489-527.
Woongjun Chae. "The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s" Journal of Popular Narrative 31, no.3 (2025) : 489-527.
Woongjun Chae. The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s. Journal of Popular Narrative, 31(3), 489-527.
Woongjun Chae. The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s. Journal of Popular Narrative. 2025; 31(3) 489-527.
Woongjun Chae. The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s. 2025; 31(3), 489-527.
Woongjun Chae. "The Cultural Politics of Translated ‘Bad Books’ in the 1960s" Journal of Popular Narrative 31, no.3 (2025) : 489-527.
