Dead Silence And Other Stories Of The Jeju Massacre

The years 1945?1950 were turbulent times in Korea. Proponents of two very different ideologies were struggling for control of the country, and many innocent people were killed in the struggle. One of the most tragic and, until now, largely unknown events during this period occurred on Jeju Island in 1948. On April 3 of that year, a communist uprising that enjoyed significant support within the local communities was brutally suppressed by the police and military forces of the Korean government, with guidance from the American military. It is estimated that at least 30,000 people, many of them innocent civilians, were killed in the brutal massacre ordered by President Syngman Rhee. And yet very few people, either within or outside of Korea, have a clear understanding of the enormity of this event, for an eerie silence has surrounded it for the last 50 years. Islanders who survived the event have remained silent about it largely out of fear of how they might be implicated in it, or associated with the communist forces in Korea, if it were openly discussed. This is the story of ?The Jeju Massacre,? a story that needs to be told.The short stories by Hyun Kil-Un brought together in this collection are all set on Jeju Island in and around the time of the Jeju Massacre. Each story offers its own unique perspective on the events surrounding the massacre, and the connections between the stories provide readers with a deep, multi-faceted understanding of the incident. This fictional exploration of the Jeju Massacre dramatically illustrates how innocent people are the victims of ideologies, how truth can be concealed on such a large scale, and how the revelation of truth can be so subversive in society.This is the first English-language translation of this collection of stories by Hyun-Kil-Un. The stories assembled here are readily accessible to all readers of the English-language, but will be especially relevant to those with an interest in Korean literature, Korean history, Japanese colonialism, the communist movement, and Korean-American relations.CONTENTS ?The Dream of the Dragon Horse; ?Dawn?; ?Grandfather?; ?Fever?; ?The Homecoming?; ?Fire and Ashes?; ?Dead Silence?

The Jeju Massacre is a largely forgotten tragedy that preceded the Korean War. Hyun's fictional exploration of the massacre focuses on how people become the victims of their ideologies, how truth can be concealed on such a large scale, and how the later revelation of truth can affect a society.

The Routledge Companion to Korean Literature consists of 35 chapters written by leaders in the field, who explore significant topics and who have pioneered innovative approaches. The collection highlights the most dynamic current scholarship on Korean literature, presenting rigorous literary analysis, interdisciplinary methodologies, and transregional thinking so as to provide a valuable and inspiring resource for researchers and students alike. This Companion has particular significance as the most extensive collection to date of English-language articles on Korean literature; it both offers a thorough intellectual engagement with current scholarship and addresses a broad range of topics and time periods, from premodern to contemporary. It will contribute to an understanding of literature as part of a broad sociocultural process that aims to put the field into conversation with other fields of study in the humanities and social sciences. While presenting rigorous and innovative academic research that will be useful to graduate students and researchers, the chapters in the collection are written to be accessible to the average upper-level undergraduate student and include only minimal use of academic jargon. In an effort to provide substantially helpful material for researching, teaching, and learning Korean literature, this Companion includes as an appendix an extensive list of English translations of Korean literature.

The problem of memory in China, Japan and Korea involves a surfeit rather than a deficit of memory, and the consequence of this excess is negative: unforgettable traumas prevent nations from coming to terms with the problems of the present. These compelling essays enrich Western scholarship by applying to it insights derived from Asian settings.

This book introduces the Original Nation scholarship to examine the historical genealogy of the nation’s struggles against the state. A fundamentally different portrait of history, geography, politics, and the role of law emerges when the perspective of the nation and peoples is placed at the center of geopolitical analysis of global affairs. In contrast to traditional and canonical state-centric narratives, the Original Nation scholarship offers a diametrically distinct “on-the-ground” and “bottom-up” portrait of the struggle, resistance, and defiance of the nation and peoples. It exposes persistent global patterns of genocide, ecocide, and ethnocide that have resulted from attempts by the state to occupy, suppress, exploit, and destroy the nation. The Original Nation scholarship offers a powerful and widely applicable intellectual tool to examine the history of resilience, emancipatory struggles, and collective efforts to build a vibrant alternative world among the nation and peoples across the globe.

Korea's largest island, Jeju forms a roughly oval shape stretching 75 kilometers from east to west and 41kilometers, at its widest, from north to south. It is located off the southernmost coast of Korea, lying between China and Japan. The four seasons are distinct, though the climate is mild. The temperature rarely falls below freezing in winter, except at the summit of Mt. Halla. Now the recipient of UNESCO designation in three categories of natural science, and a finalist in the international New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign, Jeju is also renowned for its ecology. Forged by volcanic activity, the island has a wealth of natural phenomena and a 5,000-year history of human civilization in harmony with nature.