26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 … Years: The Politics of Kang Full’s Webtoon 26 Years

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence and on-/offline reception of the webtoon 26 Years (2006) created by South Korean manhwa-ga Kang Full. Presenting itself as faction (factual fiction), 26 Years deals with the aftermath of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising. The webtoon envisions a radical fictional response to this contested and traumatic event in contemporary South Korean history through the planned and attempted assassination, in 2006, of former President Chun Doo Hwan by a group of victims of the uprising. Central questions raised by 26 Years and its reception include how the politicized webtoon as a pop culture phenomenon is related to the appearance of new forms of protest within social movements and how manhwa artists exercise agency in this context. By addressing these questions, the current paper presents a close reading of Kang Full’s webtoon, with a focus on his faction approach to the Gwangju Uprising and the particular affordances of the webtoon, its temporal dynamics, interactivity and employment of metalepsis.