The Review of Korean Studies
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ISSN : 1229-0076
Wrestling with Japan:The Colonial Legacy and the Construction of National Identity in Pak Kyongni’s Toji (Land)
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Abstract
Pak Kyongni’s Toji (Land, 1969-1994) is a multivolume, 6-million-word novel long touted by South Korean critics as the greatest work of modern Korean literature. This paper examines the representation and significance of Japan and the colonial past in Toji. That a work widely perceived to be a national epic par excellence should contain as a fundamental component the relationship of the former colonizer and colonized reveals the extent to which Pak’s magnum opus is a literary testament to the inextricable connection between Japan and the construction of national identity in modern Korea. Pak’s treatment of the colonial period indeed appeals to, and epitomizes, the conventional anti- Japanese nationalist discourse of post-liberation Korea. But at the same time, I argue that her engagement with Japan in Toji is too multilayered, complex, and passionate to be viewed as being simply and only anti-Japanese. Focusing on Parts 4 and 5 and Pak’s use of a main Japanese character, I examine the diversity and complexity of Pak’s ideas about Japan and the imperial and colonial impact on Korea in Toji.
- keywords
- Pak Kyongni, Toji, Korea, Japan, imperialism, colonialism
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