Voicing Upheaval: Excavating and Preserving Korean Linguistic Rhetoric of the 1970s

Conference: The Asian Conference on Education (ACE2022)
Title: Voicing Upheaval: Excavating and Preserving Korean Linguistic Rhetoric of the 1970s
Stream: Challenging & Preserving: Culture, Inter/Multiculturalism & Language
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Authors:
Hugh Schuckman, University of Utah, Asia Campus, South Korea
Sangho Kim, University of Utah, South Korea

Abstract:

Korean language has a rich narrative system often overlooked and underappreciated by contemporary scholars and teachers. Like Japanese, the Korean language commonly employs both its own phonographic system and Chinese-based ideograms. While the latter system has a long and predominant historical and cultural background, Korea’s shift towards using phonograms exclusively has restructured the cultural and rhetorical space of Korean writing. Whereas traditional Korean rhetoric emphasizes the metaphysical interpretation of ideograms, contemporary Korean rhetoric ensconced in phonetic expression places higher value on flexible, intertextual moments that gesture towards contemporary struggles for individual and national freedom. This research presentation focuses specifically on the invention of contemporary Korean rhetoric in literature written during the 1970s. This period encapsulates the rapid industrialization and urbanization alongside a ubiquitous struggle to overcome extreme poverty in the wake of the Korean Civil War. Using research methods of archival and museum research, this presentation highlights the ways a rhetorical analysis of text such as Seokyoung Hwang’s "Away from Home","Mungu Lee’s "Painful, Grand Dream", and Kisuk Song’s "Green Bean General" mobilize rhetorical devices that highlight the social tensions caused by actual vicissitudes of people withstanding series of upheavals. In addition to contributing to the virtually non-existent English scholarship on Korean rhetoric of this period, this research endeavors to argue for greater attention towards preserving a neglected, yet important rhetorical bridge from the early post-Korean war era to our current moment.

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