@article{ART003315141},
author={Park, Jin-sook},
title={The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives},
journal={Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University},
issn={1598-3021},
year={2026},
volume={83},
number={1},
pages={377-410}
TY - JOUR
AU - Park, Jin-sook
TI - The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives
JO - Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
PY - 2026
VL - 83
IS - 1
PB - Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
SP - 377
EP - 410
SN - 1598-3021
AB - This paper identifies the emergence of a new father-daughter narrative in Korean literary history, focusing on Jeong Ji-a’s The Liberation Diary of My Father (2022) and Ye So-yeon’s “That Dog and the Revolution” (2024). Both novels feature a daughter as narrator who, centered around her father’s funeral, reflects on his life, realizes the traces he left on her own existence, and moves toward solidarity. Unlike previous, somewhat abstract fatherdaughter narratives, these works focus on the relationship between Korean society’s ideology and the father’s life, showing how life is possible after the father’s era.
Jeong Ji-a’s The Liberation Diary of My Father utilizes anxiety about the influence of Camus’s The Stranger as the text’s unconscious. The novel directly references The Stranger, describes the sun, and deliberately uses the word “absurdity,” revealing both the influence and the process of overcoming it. It uses The Stranger to speak about the absurdity surrounding both the father’s life after the partisan activity and the ideology of Korean society. In Ye So-yeon’s “That Dog and the Revolution,” the narrator-daughter, through her ‘586 generation’ father’s illness, death, and funeral, not only comes to understand him but critically inherits his attitude. This mirrors an expanded version of the brief scene in The Stranger where Meursault feels liberation just before death and comes to understand ‘Mother’. Jeong Ji-a completes her mourning through the funeral, while Ye So-yeon realizes her deep love for her ailing father.
Both novels, beginning with the father’s death, transcend the pain of his absence or mere conceptual overcoming to arrive at a new understanding and mourning. They herald the emergence of a new father-daughter narrative significant in literary history, as they encapsulate the unfolding of modern Korean history and the development and undercurrents of 2020s society.
KW - The Stranger;Anxiety of Influence;Narratives of Daughters and Fathers;The Liberation Diary of My Father;“That Dog and the Revolution”; Absurdity;Mourning;Solidarity
DO -
UR -
ER -
Park, Jin-sook. (2026). The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 83(1), 377-410.
Park, Jin-sook. 2026, "The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives", Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, vol.83, no.1 pp.377-410.
Park, Jin-sook "The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83.1 pp.377-410 (2026) : 377.
Park, Jin-sook. The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives. 2026; 83(1), 377-410.
Park, Jin-sook. "The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83, no.1 (2026) : 377-410.
Park, Jin-sook. The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 83(1), 377-410.
Park, Jin-sook. The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University. 2026; 83(1) 377-410.
Park, Jin-sook. The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives. 2026; 83(1), 377-410.
Park, Jin-sook. "The Anxiety of Influence and the Emergence of New Father-Daughter Narratives" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83, no.1 (2026) : 377-410.
