The Korean War Novel: Rewriting History from the Civil War to the Post-Cold War

The Korean War Novel examines the ways that novels written 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 or ’proxy 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. Suk Koo Rhee writes back against the authoritative version of Cold War historiography to explain the contemporary nature of the unfinished conflict on the Korean peninsula today.

Suk Koo Rhee is Professor of English at Yonsei University, Seoul, where he teaches courses in postcolonial literature and theory, division literature, Asian American Novel and Asian cinema. He serves as the Managing Editor of Situations: Cultural Studies in the Asian Context. His essays have been published in a number of journals including Journal of Asian Studies, International Journal of Children’s Literature, Canadian Journal of Film Studies and Genre. His four Korean monographs on postcolonial literature and theory received such major awards as The Yonsei Outstanding Research Award, The Best Monograph of the Year Award (2011, 2021) from The English Language and Literature Association of Korea, and The 2022 Korean Ministry of Education Award for the 50 Best NRF-Funded Research Projects. He is appointed as the Underwood Distinguished Professor during the term of 2022 to 2025, a prestigious award given to a Yonsei faculty member who is internationally recognized for his or her research accomplishments.