The Korean War Novel

The Korean War Novel examines the ways that novels by Korean and Asian American writers have represented the Korean War. By studying the ideological contours of works by Richard E. Kim, Ahn Junghyo, Susan Choi, Ha Jin, Choi In-hun and Hwang Sok-yong, it documents the range of historical narratives that have alternatively framed the Korean War as an international war, a civil war, a reverse postcolonial war, a war between the genders, and an attempt to de-escalate the Cold War itself. The dual role of North East Asians as both victims and willing agents of the Cold War comes into focus in revisiting the conflict from the post-Cold War perspective of decolonisation. The study brings into discussion a range of diverse views, published in both Korean and English, on such compelling historical issues as the conflict between left-leaning nationalist forces and the anti-communist, pro-Japanese collaborator class during the US military occupation and the Rhee regime, civilian massacres during the Korean War, anti-communist persecutions during the military regimes and the early twenty-first-century mass politics of South Korea. Whenever possible, the book brings to the fore the manner in which each work reinforces the Cold War framework or seeks to challenge or subvert it – in certain cases, the ways in which certain novels even attempt to articulate an alternative political vision. Most importantly of all, this book writes back against the authoritative version of Cold War historiography to explain the contemporary nature of the unfinished conflict on the Korean peninsula today.