Abstract

Multiple of South Korean female author Pak Hwasŏng's works deal with the subject of war and national enlightenment. In particular, hitherto silenced and fragmented stories of war appear in works produced during the latter part of her life. This essay will discuss the later works of Pak Hwasŏng which constitute a rewriting of war memories. Most notably, I evaluate the short stories contained in the collection Hyuhwasan and her later autobiographical works, such as Nunbora ŭi unha. Indeed, in Pak Hwasŏng's later works she once again summons recollections of war in an attempt to fashion a new narrative of wartime memories. The testimony and memories laid bare in Pak Hwasŏng's works differ from the war writing of authors Ch'oe Chŏnghŭi and Pak Wansŏ. In Pak Hwasŏng's writings, the narrative returns to a single aspect of a memory through silence and a suspension of time. Pak Wansŏ's works, however, reveal a process of working closer towards truth through a rewriting of the death of the author's brother. Pak Hwasŏng's works are arrested in a single moment in time. The novel Nunbora ŭi unha relates the story of her leftist son who one day goes out with his comrades and doesn’t return. The narration is concise and restrained and is surprisingly devoid of emotion. In contrast, the short stories “Miro” and “Majimak p'yŏnji” deal more concretely with stories of war. “Miro” relates the story of her daughter who has left Seoul as a refugee. “Majimak p'yŏnji” rewrites the story of her missing son. This story “Majimak p'yŏnji” summarizes the last years of the author’s life. The work begins with the words, “Son! My son! Chaeyŏng! My Chaeyŏng!” The story begins with a song memorializing her son, a name she could not speak for 34 years. Yet, the story of her son and the other armband clad young men he left with is dealt with ambiguously. It could likely be an effect of generational differences and the political situation, but for an author who had lived under constant state scrutiny concerning her political convictions, the explaining away of her political beliefs or the death of her son through narrative would not have been easy. Autobiographical novels by women often act as works communicating the commonality of the isolated experiences of women and are often considered as attempts to speak of one's own experiences in an effort to empathize with other women. These works are particular in that they destabilize the boundary between novel and essay, setting them apart from the works of male writers. The testimonies of war also differ from the narrative testimonies of male writers which integrate the fragmented subject into a socially universal self. Following from this, the war testimonies of female writers return to primal memories as an attempt to rewrite historical memory. The rewriting of female experiences also needs to be evaluated from the perspective of psychoanalysis to determine how these narratives reinterpret events not as historical truths in themselves, but as reconstructions of the past through narrative which serve to reevaluate and consolidate their meanings.