Reading North Korea : An Ethnological Inquiry / by Sonia Ryang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ryang, Sonia, author.

Series:

Harvard East Asian Monographs ; 341.

Harvard East Asian Monographs ; 341

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnology--Korea (North).

Ethnology.

Korean literature--Korea (North)--History and criticism.

Korean literature.

Literature and society--Korea (North).

Literature and society.

Korea (North)--Social life and customs.

Korea (North).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 230 p. :) ill. ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

Leiden; Boston : BRILL, 2012.

Other Title:

An Ethnological Inquiry

Place of Publication:

Boston : Harvard University Asia Center, 2012.

Summary:

"Often depicted as one of the world's most strictly isolationist and relentlessly authoritarian regimes, North Korea has remained terra incognita to foreign researchers as a site for anthropological fieldwork. Given the difficulty of gaining access to the country and its people, is it possible to examine the cultural logic and social dynamics of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea? In this innovative book, Sonia Ryang casts new light onto the study of North Korean culture and society by reading literary texts as sources of ethnographic data. Analyzing and interpreting the rituals and language embodied in a range of literary works published in the 1970s and 1980s, Ryang focuses critical attention on three central themes--love, war, and self--that reflect the nearly complete overlap of the personal, social, and political realms in North Korean society. The ideology embedded in these propagandistic works laid the cultural foundation for the nation as a "perpetual ritual state," where social structures and personal relations are suspended in tribute to Kim Il Sung, the political and spiritual leader who died in 1994 but lives eternally in the hearts of his people and still weaves the social fabric of present-day North Korea.".

Contents:

Preliminary Material

A Journey into the Abyss

Love

War

Self

On the Social and the Political

References

Index

Harvard East Asian Monographs.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-219) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781684175154

1684175151

OCLC:

1132227036

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9781684175154 DOI