@article{ART003398903},
author={QIAN LI},
title={Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms},
journal={인문논총 },
issn={2005-6222},
year={2026},
volume={71},
pages={47-70}
TY - JOUR
AU - QIAN LI
TI - Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms
JO - 인문논총
PY - 2026
VL - 71
IS - null
PB - Institute for Human studies, Kyungnam University
SP - 47
EP - 70
SN - 2005-6222
AB - This study examines Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms by focusing on how the U.S.-led order of the Vietnam War, mediated through multiple intermediate actors, differentially distributes protection, risk, and authority across bodies. It draws selectively on Agamben’s theory of the state of exception and discussions of subimperialism to examine overlapping military, administrative, and market relations in Da Nang. The analysis shows that prisoners and the tortured child remain within institutional procedures while receiving weakened protection, whereas Ahn Young-gyu and Pham Quyen exercise limited authority over investigation, interpretation, administration, and resource allocation despite their own subordinate positions within a larger power structure. Oh Hye-jung and Pham Minh, by contrast, secure possibilities of movement across institutional boundaries through money, personal relations, documents, and disguise rather than through formal authority. Ahn Young-gyu’s assistance in Stapley’s desertion, the killing of Pham Minh, and his avoidance of familiar faces before returning home demonstrate that structural constraints limit the range of action without fully erasing responsibility for concrete choices made within those limits. Shame is therefore treated not as evidence that proves responsibility, but as a limited concept for reading the unstable relation a character maintains with his own actions after the fact. Through this analysis, the body in The Shadow of Arms emerges as the site where the hierarchy of war becomes a concrete condition of life and where limited authority, choice, and responsibility arise within relations of subordination.
KW - Hwang Sok-yong;The Shadow of Arms;body;state of exception;subimperialism;shame
DO -
UR -
ER -
QIAN LI. (2026). Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms. 인문논총 , 71, 47-70.
QIAN LI. 2026, "Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms", 인문논총 , vol.71, pp.47-70.
QIAN LI "Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms" 인문논총 71 pp.47-70 (2026) : 47.
QIAN LI. Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms. 2026; 71 47-70.
QIAN LI. "Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms" 인문논총 71(2026) : 47-70.
QIAN LI. Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms. 인문논총 , 71, 47-70.
QIAN LI. Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms. 인문논총 . 2026; 71 47-70.
QIAN LI. Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms. 2026; 71 47-70.
QIAN LI. "Bodies between Subordination and Delegated Agency: Focusing on Hwang Sok-yong’s The Shadow of Arms" 인문논총 71(2026) : 47-70.
