Memory Construction and the Politics of Time in Neoliberal South Korea Paperback – 2 December 2022
by Namhee Lee (Author)
In Memory Construction and the Politics of Time in Neoliberal South Korea Namhee Lee explores memory construction and history writing in post-1987 South Korea. The massive neoliberal reconstruction of all aspects of society shifted public discourse from minjung (people) to simin (citizen), from political to cultural, from collective to individual. This shift reconstituted people as Homo economicus, rights-bearing and rights-claiming individuals, even in social movements. Lee explains this shift in the context of simultaneous historical developments: South Korea's transition to democracy, the end of the Cold War, and neoliberal reconstruction understood as synonymous with democratization. By examining memoirs, biographies, novels, and revisionist conservative historical scholarship, Lee shows how the dominant discourse of a "complete break with the past" erases the critical ethos of previous emancipatory movements foundational to South Korean democracy.
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Review
"Lee's book makes a significant contribution to current literature on social memory, in particular, by demonstrating how memory becomes a tool for mass media to construct alternate narratives of history and collective memories of the past."--Charlotte Hammond "European Journal of Korean Studies" (6/1/2023 12:00:00 AM)
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“Raising strong challenges to the widely held triumphalism of the late 1980s, Namhee Lee offers an epic narrative of failed human and social progress in the exit from the bipolarized twentieth-century world. She shows how the hurried hopes of the time, together with the restructuring of global economic chains, broke apart the long-nurtured ideal of revolutionary social transformation. This book is social history of the post--Cold War transition at its best and a timely intervention into some of the most critical questions in contemporary Korean studies. Essential reading.” — Heonik Kwon, author of After the Korean War: An Intimate History
“Namhee Lee makes a crucial contribution to scholarship on post--Cold War South Korea. Her incisive analysis of the work of South Korean novelists and literary figures, public intellectuals, and politicians illuminates big questions about progressive history in relation to the legacies of the democratization movement, the expansion of global capital, and cultural neoliberalization. This brilliant and timely book will be highly welcome by scholars of South Korean culture, literature, and history.” — Eleana J. Kim, author of Making Peace with Nature: Ecological Encounters along the Korean DMZ
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About the Author
Namhee Lee is Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles, author of The Making of Minjung: Democracy and the Politics of Representation in South Korea, and coeditor of The South Korean Democratization Movement: A Sourcebook.
Product details
Publisher : Duke University Press (2 December 2022)
Language : English
Paperback : 228 pages
About the Author
Namhee Lee is Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles, author of The Making of Minjung: Democracy and the Politics of Representation in South Korea, and coeditor of The South Korean Democratization Movement: A Sourcebook.
Product details
Publisher : Duke University Press (2 December 2022)
Language : English
Paperback : 228 pages
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