[Feature] How the Past Interrogates the Present
The Quarterly Changbi 212, Summer 2026
Time that flows becomes the past--but what does time that stagnates become? This issue's special feature highlights literary and narrative works that summon past events and memories of the community into the present and examines their significance.
Literary critic Jung Ju A, focusing on the two documentaries A Dust Buries Sabuk and 1980 Sabuk, explores the complex realities surrounding the 1980 Sabuk Uprising and calls for the renewal and expansion of the democratization movement.
Literary critic Han Young-in investigates today's phenomenon in which even the community's historical memory is now becoming a private tool for proving identity and achieving success, under the label “personal narrative market.” While viewing the power of this market critically, Han also reflects—through works such as Park Solmay's novels—on literature's genuine representational capacity that cannot be reduced merely to individual experience.
Poet Yoon Eun-seong, through the examination of the poetry of two women poets, Heo Su-kyung and Cho Jung, captures the light of ecological community within the history of Korean poetry. From Heo Su-kyung's past poems, Yoon draws out reflections on locality and critiques of civilization to sense the ecological crisis, and through Cho Jung's poetry, underscores the importance of poetic practice that cares for ecological values.