[KF Korea Workshop 2] 30 years after the democratization

The KF Korea Workshop is hosted by the Korea Foundation and organized by the East Asia Institute to promote and share understanding of Korean social, political, and economic issues among international residents in Korea.

For the sixth lecture of our 2018 2nd KF Korea Workshop Series, EAI and the Korea Foundation invited best-selling author Yeo-ul Jung to present on the topic of ‘Trauma healing Korean literature.’ Jung is writing essay series for the Kyunghyang Shinmun, Hankyoreh, and the Korea Joongang Daily. Her famous works are Things that I should have Known Earlier and My Dear Who Always Says "I'm Fine"

Jung claimed that a person must face their internal conflict to heal their trauma, adding that suppressed trauma will eventually come back to haunt us. She used examples from literature to explain the necessity of understanding our own traumatic memories. First, she analyzed Han Kang’s bestseller The Vegetarian to emphasize the importance of the presence of a second person who can show empathy for the trauma of an individual. Furthermore, to describe the psyche of Korean society, she used Who Ate up all the Shinga? as an example to discuss the tendency of Koreans to seek overcompensation for past wrongs. She explained that this tendency originates from the traumatic memories left by the Korean War.