London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

LKL book database logo

Toward Democracy: South Korean Culture and Society, 1945–1980

From the publisher’s website:

This volume brings together translated essays by fourteen established and emerging South Korean scholars. Using approaches from sociology, political science, history, and literary and cultural studies, the authors offer innovative and nuanced analyses of a wide range of topics—from refugee displacement to street politics, from anti-communism and democracy to militarization—and discuss the links between cultural productions and their sociohistorical contexts. Divided into five parts, the collection begins with the national division in 1945 and devastating civil war and concludes with the May 18 Democratic Uprising in 1980.

Contents

Preface | Theodore Jun Yoo
Introduction: What Is South Korea? | John Lie

PART I: Liberation and the Politics of the People

  1. The State as Betrayal and People as Refugees: The Politics of Return | Yerim Kim
  2. Street Politics and the Production of Representations | Cheon Junghwan
  3. Days and Nights of Taking up Arms: Guns, Young Men, and Liberation | Hyeryoung Lee

PART II: The Cold War’s Hot War: Conflict, Reconstruction, and Freedom

  1. The State as God: North and South Korean Occupation and Mobilization Policies During the Korean War | Kim Dong-choon
  2. Morals and Liberal Democracy After the Korean War | Lee Bong-beom
  3. Traveling in Asia: The (Im)possibility of Intraregional Traffic | Chang Se-jin

PART III: Articulations of Resistance and Networks

  1. The Intellectual Landscape of 1964: Anti-communism, Nationalism, Democracy, Liberalism, and Developmentalism | Kim Kun Woo
  2. The April Revolution and the May Coup: The Topos of Liberty and Bread | Boduerae Kwon

PART IV: Body, Space, and Affective Democracy

  1. The April Uprising of the “Youth Generation” and the Rituals of Resistance | Kim Miran
  2. A Spatial Sociology of the April 19 Uprising and May 16 Coup | Kim Baek Yung
  3. Those Deprived in 1971: The Housing Protests | Kim Won

PART V: From Decadence to Revolt: Fissures in the State

  1. Hostess Movies and the Hypernationalization Project of the Mobilization Regime | Yoo Sun Young
  2. The Boom in Nonelite Writings and the Expansion of the Literary Field | Kim Sunghwan
  3. Counter-Violence and Anti-Violence: The May 18 Armed Struggle and Social Movements of the 1980s | Kim Jung Han

Afterword | Bruce Cumings

Entry on Goodreads.com here.

* Where the book is available from a number of sources, they are prioritised as follows: (1) Amazon UK site, or Bookshop.org for the more recent uploads (2) Amazon US site (3) Other sites in US or Europe, including second-hand outlets (4) LTI Korea, where the title is advertised as available from there (5) Onlines stores in Korea. Links to Bookshop.org and Amazon UK site contain an affiliate code which, should you make a purchase, gives a small commission to LKL at no additional cost to you.