The Kwangju uprising and poetry by Ko Chong-hui, a writer of south cholla

Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 23-32

  Lee, Ann ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0009856156     PISSN: 00074810     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Hana poda to choun paek ui olgul iora (A hundred faces are better than one) (Seoul: Tto hana ui munhwa, 1989; first edition 1988), pp. 76-77. The poem depicts the exploitation of women in prostitution.
2. Carol Smart, "Feminism and the Power of Law," in Women's Studies: Essential Readings, ed. Stevi Jackson (New York: New York University Press, 1993), p. 300.
3. Lois McNay,Foucault and Feminism (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992), p. 13.
4. The term ideology refers to "the processes by which meaning is produced, challenged, reproduced, transformed." Michele Barrett, Women's Oppression Today: The Marxist/Feminist Encounter (London and New York: Verso, 1988), p. 97.
5. Aihwa Ong, "Colonialism and Modernity: Feminist Re-presentations of Women in Non-Western Modernity: Feminist Re-presentations of Women in Non-Western Societies," Inscriptions: Journal for the Critique of Colonial Discourse, nos. 3/4 (1988): 79-93. Cited in Sneja Gunew and Anna Yeatman, Feminism and the Politics of Difference (Boulder: Westview Press, 1993), p. 24.
6. Aihwa Ong, "Colonialism and Modernity: Feminist Re-presentations of Women in Non-Western Modernity: Feminist Re-presentations of Women in Non-Western Societies," Inscriptions: Journal for the Critique of Colonial Discourse, nos. 3/4 (1988): 79-93. Cited in Sneja Gunew and Anna Yeatman, Feminism and the Politics of Difference (Boulder: Westview Press, 1993), p. 24.
7. Gunew and Yeatman, Feminism and the Politics of Difference, p. 11.
8. See Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan, eds., Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices: Scattered Hegemonies (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994). See also Lydia Liu, "The Female Body and Nationalist Discourse," in ibid., pp. 37-62, cited in Ann Choi, "The Feminine as the Political: Voice in Han Yongun's Nim ui ch'immuk," paper presented at a conference on "Gender and Korean Culture: Literature, Television and Oral Narrative," Korean Studies Institute, University of Southern California, 18-20 October 1996, p. 10.
9. See Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan, eds., Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices: Scattered Hegemonies (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994). See also Lydia Liu, "The Female Body and Nationalist Discourse," in ibid., pp. 37-62, cited in Ann Choi, "The Feminine as the Political: Voice in Han Yongun's Nim ui ch'immuk," paper presented at a conference on "Gender and Korean Culture: Literature, Television and Oral Narrative," Korean Studies Institute, University of Southern California, 18-20 October 1996, p. 10.
10. See Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan, eds., Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices: Scattered Hegemonies (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994). See also Lydia Liu, "The Female Body and Nationalist Discourse," in ibid., pp. 37-62, cited in Ann Choi, "The Feminine as the Political: Voice in Han Yongun's Nim ui ch'immuk," paper presented at a conference on "Gender and Korean Culture: Literature, Television and Oral Narrative," Korean Studies Institute, University of Southern California, 18-20 October 1996, p. 10.
11. Kim Mi-hyun discusses Korean feminist literature and the body in Han'guk yosong sosol kwa p'eminijum (Korean feminist fiction and feminism) (Seoul: Sin'gu munhwasa, 1996).
12. Ko Chong-hui, "P'uraha ui pom" (Prague spring 15: Blood and economics), in Nunmul kkot (Teardrop flowers) (Seoul: Ch'angjak kwa pip'yongsa, 1992), pp. 88-90.
13. Ko Chong-hui published a collection of poetry entitled I sidae ui Abel (Abel of this age) in 1983.
14. Ko, I sidae ui Abel, p. 90.
15. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (New York and London: Routledge, 1988), p. 79. Spivak argues that "Marx's dialectics of externalization-alienation followed by fetish formation is inadequate because one fundamental human relationship to a product and labor is not taken into account," i.e., the situation of the woman's product, the child.
16. Ko Chong-hui, Cho mudom wi e p'urun chandi (Green grass on the grave) (Seoul: Ch'angjak kwa pip'yongsa, 1989), pp. 28-31.
17. Ko Chong-hui was associated with the feminist organization Tto hana ui munhwa (Alternative Culture), which sought "an analysis of patriarchy and the search for solutions to problems related to patriarchy just as has been done with regard to the form of production known as capitalism. Cho Ok-ra, in Yi Mi-kyong et al., "Pyonhwa hanun segye wa yosong haebang ui inyom" (A changing world: The concept of women's liberation), Ch'angjak kwa pip'yong (Creation and Criticism) 19, no. 4 (fall 1991): 13. Tto Hana ui munhwa professes the goal of creating an "alternative culture" of non-violence and equality. Kim Yong-hye, "Han'guk yosong haebang munhak ui yon'gu hyonhwang e taehan pip'anjok koch'al" (A critical study of the current state of research on Korean feminist literature), Munhak chongsin (Literary Spirit) (September 1991): 57.
18. Ko Chong-hui was associated with the feminist organization Tto hana ui munhwa (Alternative Culture), which sought "an analysis of patriarchy and the search for solutions to problems related to patriarchy just as has been done with regard to the form of production known as capitalism. Cho Ok-ra, in Yi Mi-kyong et al., "Pyonhwa hanun segye wa yosong haebang ui inyom" (A changing world: The concept of women's liberation), Ch'angjak kwa pip'yong (Creation and Criticism) 19, no. 4 (fall 1991): 13. Tto Hana ui munhwa professes the goal of creating an "alternative culture" of non-violence and equality. Kim Yong-hye, "Han'guk yosong haebang munhak ui yon'gu hyonhwang e taehan pip'anjok koch'al" (A critical study of the current state of research on Korean feminist literature), Munhak chongsin (Literary Spirit) (September 1991): 57.
19. Han'guk yosong yon'guhoe (Association for Korean Women's Studies), Han'guk yosongsa (A history of Korean women) (Seoul: P'ulpit, 1992), p. 32.
20. Yi Hyo-chae, Han'guk ui yosong undong: oje wa onul (The Korean women's movement Yesterday and today) (Seoul: Chongusa, 1989), p. 58.
21. Ibid., p. 60.
22. Han'guk yosong yon'guhoe, Han'guk yosongsa, p. 33.
23. Yi Hyo-chae, Han'guk ui yosong undong, p. 60.
24. "Sin kunbu chipkwon ilchi" (Timeline of the new military's seizure of power), Han kyore sinmun (One People Newspaper), 24 January 1996, p. 4.
25. Han Man-su, "Kinyom si wa hangjaeng si" (Commemorative poetry and oppositional poetry),Munhak chongsin (Literary Spirit), May 1991, p. 42.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Paik Nak-chung, personal communication with author.
29. The Conservative Alliance refers to the collaboration between moderate opposition politicians and military forces during the course of Korea's transition to democracy. Moderate opposition politicians have sought to gain power by staying within the system. When the struggle for direct presidential elections became a mass movement in 1986, moderate opposition politicians sought to control popular oppositional struggle. (See Ko Song-kuk, "1980 nyondae ui chongch'isa" [Political history of the 1980s], in Han'guksa [History of Korea], ed. Kang Man'gil, et al., Vol. 19 [Seoul: Han'gilsa, 1994], p. 154.) Moderate opposition politicians considered the labor movement to be damaging to their social and economic position; they stood by passively as the government suppressed the intense labor struggles of July, August, and September 1987 (ibid., pp. 163-64.) When opposition politicians gained a majority of seats in the National Assembly in the April 1988 general elections, military forces responded by merging the ruling military party, the Minjongdang (Democratic Justice Party) with the opposition Minjudang (Reunification Democratic Party) headed by Kim Youngsam and the Konghwadang (Democratic Republican Party) headed by Kim Jong-pil, into one new ruling party, the Minjadang (Democratic Liberal Party). (See Cho Hee-youn, "Transition to Democracy and Social Movements in Korea," paper delivered at a workshop entitled "Transition to Democracy in Comparative Perspective: Theoretical, Empirical and Methodological Issues," 17-18 February 1995, Bunche Hall, UCLA, p. 9.) This merger brought together a coalition of military forces and moderate opposition parties, and enabled the military dictatorship to retain state power through constitutional means (ibid., p. 8).
30. The Conservative Alliance refers to the collaboration between moderate opposition politicians and military forces during the course of Korea's transition to democracy. Moderate opposition politicians have sought to gain power by staying within the system. When the struggle for direct presidential elections became a mass movement in 1986, moderate opposition politicians sought to control popular oppositional struggle. (See Ko Song-kuk, "1980 nyondae ui chongch'isa" [Political history of the 1980s], in Han'guksa [History of Korea], ed. Kang Man'gil, et al., Vol. 19 [Seoul: Han'gilsa, 1994], p. 154.) Moderate opposition politicians considered the labor movement to be damaging to their social and economic position; they stood by passively as the government suppressed the intense labor struggles of July, August, and September 1987 (ibid., pp. 163-64.) When opposition politicians gained a majority of seats in the National Assembly in the April 1988 general elections, military forces responded by merging the ruling military party, the Minjongdang (Democratic Justice Party) with the opposition Minjudang (Reunification Democratic Party) headed by Kim Youngsam and the Konghwadang (Democratic Republican Party) headed by Kim Jong-pil, into one new ruling party, the Minjadang (Democratic Liberal Party). (See Cho Hee-youn, "Transition to Democracy and Social Movements in Korea," paper delivered at a workshop entitled "Transition to Democracy in Comparative Perspective: Theoretical, Empirical and Methodological Issues," 17-18 February 1995, Bunche Hall, UCLA, p. 9.) This merger brought together a coalition of military forces and moderate opposition parties, and enabled the military dictatorship to retain state power through constitutional means (ibid., p. 8).
31. The Conservative Alliance refers to the collaboration between moderate opposition politicians and military forces during the course of Korea's transition to democracy. Moderate opposition politicians have sought to gain power by staying within the system. When the struggle for direct presidential elections became a mass movement in 1986, moderate opposition politicians sought to control popular oppositional struggle. (See Ko Song-kuk, "1980 nyondae ui chongch'isa" [Political history of the 1980s], in Han'guksa [History of Korea], ed. Kang Man'gil, et al., Vol. 19 [Seoul: Han'gilsa, 1994], p. 154.) Moderate opposition politicians considered the labor movement to be damaging to their social and economic position; they stood by passively as the government suppressed the intense labor struggles of July, August, and September 1987 (ibid., pp. 163-64.) When opposition politicians gained a majority of seats in the National Assembly in the April 1988 general elections, military forces responded by merging the ruling military party, the Minjongdang (Democratic Justice Party) with the opposition Minjudang (Reunification Democratic Party) headed by Kim Youngsam and the Konghwadang (Democratic Republican Party) headed by Kim Jong-pil, into one new ruling party, the Minjadang (Democratic Liberal Party). (See Cho Hee-youn, "Transition to Democracy and Social Movements in Korea," paper delivered at a workshop entitled "Transition to Democracy in Comparative Perspective: Theoretical, Empirical and Methodological Issues," 17-18 February 1995, Bunche Hall, UCLA, p. 9.) This merger brought together a coalition of military forces and moderate opposition parties, and enabled the military dictatorship to retain state power through constitutional means (ibid., p. 8).
32. The Conservative Alliance refers to the collaboration between moderate opposition politicians and military forces during the course of Korea's transition to democracy. Moderate opposition politicians have sought to gain power by staying within the system. When the struggle for direct presidential elections became a mass movement in 1986, moderate opposition politicians sought to control popular oppositional struggle. (See Ko Song-kuk, "1980 nyondae ui chongch'isa" [Political history of the 1980s], in Han'guksa [History of Korea], ed. Kang Man'gil, et al., Vol. 19 [Seoul: Han'gilsa, 1994], p. 154.) Moderate opposition politicians considered the labor movement to be damaging to their social and economic position; they stood by passively as the government suppressed the intense labor struggles of July, August, and September 1987 (ibid., pp. 163-64.) When opposition politicians gained a majority of seats in the National Assembly in the April 1988 general elections, military forces responded by merging the ruling military party, the Minjongdang (Democratic Justice Party) with the opposition Minjudang (Reunification Democratic Party) headed by Kim Youngsam and the Konghwadang (Democratic Republican Party) headed by Kim Jong-pil, into one new ruling party, the Minjadang (Democratic Liberal Party). (See Cho Hee-youn, "Transition to Democracy and Social Movements in Korea," paper delivered at a workshop entitled "Transition to Democracy in Comparative Perspective: Theoretical, Empirical and Methodological Issues," 17-18 February 1995, Bunche Hall, UCLA, p. 9.) This merger brought together a coalition of military forces and moderate opposition parties, and enabled the military dictatorship to retain state power through constitutional means (ibid., p. 8).
33. Ko Chong-hui, Kwangju ui nunmulbi (Tears falling on Kwangju) (Seoul: Tonga, 1990), p. 5.
34. Transubstantiation: the miraculous change by which according to Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox beliefs the eucharistic elements at their consecration become the body and blood of Christ while keeping only the appearances of bread and wine. Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1985, s.v. "transubstantiation").
35. Ko Chong-hui, Ch'ohonje (Ceremony to summon the dead) (Seoul: Ch'angjak kwa pip'yongsa, 1983), pp. 23-24.
36. Novelist Choi Yun has also criticized a "victims' mentality" in Korean attitudes, and has written about how the individual can be implicated in mass violence. Choi Yun, "History, Social Taboo and Fiction," talk delivered to the Southern California Korean and Korean American Studies Group, 27 January 1996.
37. Ko, Cho mudom wi e, pp. 84-85.
38. Kim Chi-ha, Cry of the People and Other Poems (Hayama, Japan: Autumn Press, 1974), pp. 39-59.
39. Kim Chong-hwan, in Ko Chong-hui, I sidae ui Abel, p. 170.
40. Im Chin-t'aek, "80 nyondae yonhui yesul undong ui chon'gae: Madang kuk, madang kut, minjok kuk ul chungsim uro" (The development of the yonhui theater movement in the 1980s: Madang kuk, madang kut and minjok kuk), Ch'angjak kwa pip'yong (Creation and Criticism) 18, no. 3 (fall 1990): 319. For a discussion of the history of madang kuk, see Choi Chung-moo, "The Minjung Culture Movement and the Construction of Popular Culture in South Korea," in Korea's Minjung Nationalism, ed. Ken Wells (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995).
41. Im Chin-t'aek, "80 nyondae yonhui yesul undong ui chon'gae: Madang kuk, madang kut, minjok kuk ul chungsim uro" (The development of the yonhui theater movement in the 1980s: Madang kuk, madang kut and minjok kuk), Ch'angjak kwa pip'yong (Creation and Criticism) 18, no. 3 (fall 1990): 319. For a discussion of the history of madang kuk, see Choi Chung-moo, "The Minjung Culture Movement and the Construction of Popular Culture in South Korea," in Korea's Minjung Nationalism, ed. Ken Wells (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995).
42. These were earlier works written by Ko Chong-hui.
43. Pak Hye-gyong, in Ko, Cho mudom wi e, pp. 147-54.
44. Ko, Kwangju ui nunmulbi, pp. 83-85.
45. Owol yosong yon'guhoe, Kwangju minjung hangjaeng, p. 238.
46. Ibid., p. 92.
47. Ko, Cho mudom wi e, pp. 66-68. I was unable to find historical source material about Pak Hyon-suk such as I have provided for the other women written about in Ko's poem.
48. Ibid., pp. 238-39.
49. Ibid., p. 240.
50. Ibid., pp. 240-41.
51. Ibid., p. 236.
52. Ibid., pp. 176-82; 236-37.
53. Ko, Cho mudom wi e, p. 65.
54. Kim Chongnan, Pio innun chungsim: Miwan ui sihak (The empty center. A poetics of incompleteness) (Seoul: Ono ui segye, 1993), p. 142.
55. Tejumola Olaniyan discusses "articulation" as a means of thinking about difference between practices of African or Black drama and theater, "articulation" is a model of identity as a process that includes interaction between various levels of subordination, and the exercise of power between and among cultures and cultural forms. Tejumola Olaniyan, Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 4-5.