Cheju and Kwangju: Healing the National Trauma in the Works of Han Kang

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.22.2025.95.18

Keywords:

Han Kang, South Korea, Cheju, Kwangju, massacre, genocide, state violence, national trauma, soul, national identity

Abstract

The paper will focus on two novels written by a well-known South Korean writer, Han Kang (1970-), namely Here Comes the Boy (Sonyŏn i onda, 2014) and I Do Not Bid Farewell (Chakpyŏl haji annŭnda, 2021), which deal respectively with the events of the Kwangju Uprising in 1980 and the Cheju Uprising in 1948, exposing the massacres of civilians by South Korean authorities. The aim of the article is to present these tragic events, which were not accurately portrayed in the Republic of Korea until the end of 1980s and – using Donald Kalsched’s theory of trauma – demonstrate that Han Kang acts like a shaman crossing the boundaries between an ordinary and non-ordinary reality in order to work through the national trauma, heal the broken souls and bring peace to the traumatized communities.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

  • Justyna Najbar-Miller, University of Warsaw

    Holds a PhD in Literary Studies from the University of Warsaw (2011) and has also studied at Yonsei (2003-2004) and Kyung Hee (2005-2008) Universities. She has been an Assistant Professor at the Department of Korean Studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Warsaw since 2011. Her research interests include Korean religions, Korean literature and literary translation. She has translated into Polish the works of Korean authors such as Pak T’ae-wŏn, Han Kang, Kim Ae-ran, and Ha Chang-soo.

References

Baker D., “Victims and Heroes: Competing Visions of May 18,” in Gi-Wook Shin and Kyung Moon Hwang (eds), Contentious Kwangju: The May 18th Uprising in Korea’s Past and Present, Lanham 2003, pp. 87-107.
View in Google Scholar

“CF 2021 | Przemiana. Spotkanie z Han Kang,” YouTube, at https://youtu.be/7nO0J6tUTdc?si=EaaXYOushLZ4hIYn.
View in Google Scholar

Choi Chungmoo, Healing Historical Trauma in South Korean Film and Literature, London 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429507441
View in Google Scholar

Choi Jung-woon, “The Formation of an ‘Absolute Community,” in Gi-Wook Shin and Kyung Moon Hwang (eds), Contentious Kwangju: The May 18th Uprising in Korea’s Past and Present, Lanham 2003, pp. 3-10.
View in Google Scholar

Chun Ja-hyun, Jung-Sun Han, “Delayed Reconciliation and Transitional Justice in Korea: Three Level of Conditions for National Reconciliation,” Asian Journal of Social Science, vol. 45, no. 3 (2017), pp. 294-315. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685314-04503004
View in Google Scholar

Han Kang, Chakpyŏl haji annŭnda, P’aju 2021.
View in Google Scholar

Han Kang, Hŭin, P’aju 2016.
View in Google Scholar

Han Kang, Sonyŏn i onda, P’aju 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/132713
View in Google Scholar

Hanley C.J., Chang Jae-Soon, “Summer of Terror: At Least 100,000 Said Executed by Korean Ally of US in 1950,” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Japan Focus, 2 VII 2008, at https://apjjf.org/Charles-J-Hanley/2827/article.
View in Google Scholar

Kalsched D., Trauma and the Soul: A Psycho-spiritual Approach to Human Development and Its Interruption, New York 2013.
View in Google Scholar

Kim Hun Joon, The Massacres at Mt. Halla: Sixty Years of Truth Seeking in South Korea, Ithaca 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801470677
View in Google Scholar

Kim Jeeun, “The Usage and Symbolic Meaning of a Length of White Cotton Cloth Used in Shamanist Rituals for the Dead in Korea,” paper presented at the Textile Society of America 11th Biennial Symposium, Honolulu, 4-7 IX 2008.
View in Google Scholar

Kim Seong Nae, “Cultural Trauma and the Cheju Massacre in Transnational Perspective,” in T. Burrett, J. Kingston (eds), Routledge Handbook of Trauma in East Asia, Abingdon–New York 2023.
View in Google Scholar

Kołakowski L., „O tożsamości zbiorowej,” in K. Michalski (ed.), Tożsamość w czasach zmiany. Rozmowy w Castel Gandolfo, Kraków 1995.
View in Google Scholar

Lewis L.S., Laying Claim to the Memory of May: A Look Back at the 1980 Kwangju Uprising, Honolulu 2002.
View in Google Scholar

Merill J., “The Cheju-do Rebellion,” The Journal of Korean Studies, vol. 2 (1980), pp. 139-197. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jks.1980.0004
View in Google Scholar

Shin Tŏk-ryong, “P’ongnyŏk ŭi shidae wa 1980-nyŏndae sosŏl,” in Kim Yoon-shik et al., Hanguk hyŏndae munhak-sa, Seoul 2005, pp. 564-577.
View in Google Scholar

Song Myung-hee, “Saranamŭn cha ŭi choech’aekkam kwa sahoejŏk todŏk kamjŏng. Han Kang ŭi ‘Sonyŏn i onda’ rŭl chungsim ŭro,” Han’guk munhak iron kwa pip’yŏng, vol. 90/25, no. 1 (2021), pp. 247-226, https://doi.org/10.20461/KLTC.2021.2.90.247.
View in Google Scholar

“Visual Arts,” Han Kang (Han Kang’s official website), at https://han-kang.net/Visual-Arts.
View in Google Scholar

Yea S., “Rewriting Rebellion and Mapping Memory in South Korea: The (re)presentation of the 1980 Kwangju Uprising Through Mangwol-dong Cemetery,” Urban Studies, vol. 39, no. 9 (2002), pp. 1551-1572. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00420980220151655
View in Google Scholar

Downloads

Published

13-06-2025

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 1(95) (2025)

Section

Language and Literature

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

“Cheju and Kwangju: Healing the National Trauma in the Works of Han Kang”. 2025. Politeja 22 (1(95): 311-32. https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.22.2025.95.18.