The afterlives of Yi Gwangsu: Narrating the trauma of colonial collaboration

Michael D Shin

doi:10.1017/s0041977x21000690

Abstract

AbstractThis article seeks to examine the repeated appearance of Yi Gwangsu (1892–1950) in South Korean postcolonial fiction as a sign of collective trauma. Yi was a pioneering novelist who was a nationalist hero to his readers, but later became a collaborator who supported Japan's war effort. This article focuses on depictions of Yi in the works of three postcolonial writers – Choe Inhun, Seonu Hwi, and Bok Geoil – whose works bore witness to how traumatic his collaboration was. Their works displayed many of the defining characteristics of trauma such as delayed experience and transmission to others. They were also marked by narrative rupture as represented by Yi's mutually incompatible identities as both a nationalist and a collaborator. Rather than repeating the traumatic event, these stories employed various strategies to create new narratives that attempted to heal the trauma.

Highlights

One strategy for dealing with the issue has been to erase it
The stories in which collaborators appeared, though small in number, have borne witness to how traumatic the collaborator issue has been for South Korean nationalism
If Yi Wanyong was the villain of nationalism, Yi Gwangsu was its tragic figure since he was a prominent nationalist and was centrally involved in the construction of Korean national identity

Summary

Introduction

One strategy for dealing with the issue has been to erase it. During the Cold War, when South Korea was under a military dictatorship, the topic was virtually taboo, not least because Park Chung Hee, ruler of the country from 1961 to 1979, wanted to minimize his own past as a collaborator (Jeong 2002: 146). Another character tries to articulate an alternative to or an alternative version of Yi. If Yi’s brief but repeated appearances in A Grey Man hinted at how traumatic his collaboration was, Journey to the West provided a more extended examination of its impact on South Korean nationalism.

Results

Conclusion