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The Representation of Clothing and the Distribution of Identity - Focusing on Kim Soom’s Okinawa Spy -

  • Korean Language & Literature
  • 2026, (133), pp.297~318
  • Publisher : Korean Language & Literature
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature
  • Received : June 10, 2026
  • Accepted : July 20, 2026
  • Published : July 31, 2026

Park, Shin-hye 1 Kim, Tae-soo 1

1단국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper examines clothing as a key analytic medium for understanding identity in Kim Soom’s novel Okinawa Spy, which narratively renders the 1945 “Kumejima Garrison Civilian Massacre.” Drawing on Frantz Fanon’s concepts of the racial epidermal schema and embodied identity, the study adapts Fanon’s black/white binary to the Japanese- Okinawan-Korean triple hierarchy. The analysis examines two configurations: first, how identical clothing such as military uniforms or blindfolds produces divergent identities through (in)visibility; second, how embodied identity manifests when clothing fails or is absent-in external disguise, voluntary disrobing, and uncovered faces. The paper argues that clothing can express but never fully regulate identity, and that the novel demonstrates how mere awareness and active resistance alone cannot dismantle colonial violence, echoing Fanon’s call for a more fundamental struggle.

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