Listening to "Silence": Alternative Modes of Communication in Korean and Korean American Women's Literature
Abstract
South Korean feminist activity may be relatively unknown to many Western readers; however, a distinct form of feminist activism can be seen when considering alternative modes of communication that are not less than, simply different from “speech” or “voice” as forms of agency celebrated in the West. Alternative modes of communications such as silence, song, touch, and performance also speak important messages which can be heard when understood through local knowledges. In the three cases of South Korean and Korean American women’s fictions used in this dissertation, I unpack these alternative modes of communications used by the female protagonists through a two-fold approach: I first locate and analyze these alternative communications, and second, I read the text alongside women’s historical and contemporary feminist movements in Korea. By reading against “universal” assumptions of feminism, I offer new and decolonizing ways of reading Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Nam-Joo Cho (2016, translated to English in 2018); Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller (1997); and The Vegetarian by Kang Han (2007, translated to English in 2015). I ultimately find that even silence can be turned into political action as seen in Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, and that alternative modes of communication can also be used to share colonial history as seen in Comfort Woman. In The Vegetarian, even direct speech can be turned into silence when listeners collectively ignore it. My dissertation contributes to the field an in-depth Korean-specific inquiry and expands on the cultural and historical significance of Korean women’s use of language in relation to feminism. Studying the local culture, history, and phases of women’s movements changes how we view these three celebrated novels.