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14. English speakers in Korea

A short literary history

Abstract

This paper interrogates the formation and the representation of the English-speaking subject in modern Korea. Who speaks English in modern Korea and why? The paper offers a literary-historical sketch of representative modern Korean subjects in both Korean and Korean American literature. These subjects, I suggest, open up a troubled history of Korean imaginaries of the English language. Whereas English first appears as a marker of colonial modernity, class privilege, and social striving in early twentieth-century Korean literature, it quickly turns into a much more ambivalent and compromising sign of political and national dispossession in the literature of the Korean War. The evolution of the representative English-speaking Korean subject from the male colonial subject to the female ‘yanggongju’ (western princess) who serves the American military personnel stationed in Korea demonstrates that, in the Korean literary imagination, English has always been deeply connected to national and collective trauma and dispossession, even as it continues to perform as a sign of globalized, elite identity. Recently, we have seen the transnational adoptee emerge in Korean American literature as a prismatic figure embodying, in particularly painful and ironic form, the contradictory identifications demanded by English-language use in contemporary Korea.

Abstract

This paper interrogates the formation and the representation of the English-speaking subject in modern Korea. Who speaks English in modern Korea and why? The paper offers a literary-historical sketch of representative modern Korean subjects in both Korean and Korean American literature. These subjects, I suggest, open up a troubled history of Korean imaginaries of the English language. Whereas English first appears as a marker of colonial modernity, class privilege, and social striving in early twentieth-century Korean literature, it quickly turns into a much more ambivalent and compromising sign of political and national dispossession in the literature of the Korean War. The evolution of the representative English-speaking Korean subject from the male colonial subject to the female ‘yanggongju’ (western princess) who serves the American military personnel stationed in Korea demonstrates that, in the Korean literary imagination, English has always been deeply connected to national and collective trauma and dispossession, even as it continues to perform as a sign of globalized, elite identity. Recently, we have seen the transnational adoptee emerge in Korean American literature as a prismatic figure embodying, in particularly painful and ironic form, the contradictory identifications demanded by English-language use in contemporary Korea.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. 1. Language policies, language ideologies and local language practices 1
  5. Part I. South Asia
  6. 2. The politics of Hinglish 21
  7. 3. Globalization and multilingualism 37
  8. 4. Kaduva of privileged power, instrument of rural empowerment? 61
  9. 5. The interface of language, literature and politics in Sri Lanka 81
  10. Part II. Southeast Asia
  11. 6. Governing English in Singapore 105
  12. 7. Uncertain locale 125
  13. 8. The encroachment of English in Malaysian cultural expression 145
  14. 9. “They think speaking in English isn’t good, you know” 167
  15. 10. The grip of English and Philippine language policy 187
  16. 11. Nimble tongues 205
  17. Part III. Asia Pacific
  18. 12. English vs. English conversation 227
  19. 13. Language policy and practice in English loanwords in Japanese 249
  20. 14. English speakers in Korea 269
  21. 15. English, class and neoliberalism in South Korea 287
  22. 16. Conclusion 303
  23. Contributors 317
  24. Index 321
The Politics of English
This chapter is in the book The Politics of English
https://doi.org/10.1075/wlp.4.18min

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. 1. Language policies, language ideologies and local language practices 1
  5. Part I. South Asia
  6. 2. The politics of Hinglish 21
  7. 3. Globalization and multilingualism 37
  8. 4. Kaduva of privileged power, instrument of rural empowerment? 61
  9. 5. The interface of language, literature and politics in Sri Lanka 81
  10. Part II. Southeast Asia
  11. 6. Governing English in Singapore 105
  12. 7. Uncertain locale 125
  13. 8. The encroachment of English in Malaysian cultural expression 145
  14. 9. “They think speaking in English isn’t good, you know” 167
  15. 10. The grip of English and Philippine language policy 187
  16. 11. Nimble tongues 205
  17. Part III. Asia Pacific
  18. 12. English vs. English conversation 227
  19. 13. Language policy and practice in English loanwords in Japanese 249
  20. 14. English speakers in Korea 269
  21. 15. English, class and neoliberalism in South Korea 287
  22. 16. Conclusion 303
  23. Contributors 317
  24. Index 321
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