[Feature] Thought, Affect, Realism / Han Ki-wook
The Quarterly Changbi 186, Winter 2019
Abstract
Han Ki-wook points out that capitalist reality, which recently focused on extreme accumulation strategies, such as containment, discarding, and expulsion, makes it difficult and thus more important to “be awake for thought and truth,” while also strongly encouraging an affective response from us. As the struggle against banality originating from such a reality is being carried out at the forefront of literature, this struggle is particularly critical in realist literature, where awareness of reality and representation are vital. Han examines the achievement of realism that Korean literature reached during the Candlelight Revolution period, doing so through a close reading of works by Hwang Jung-eun and Kim Se-hee, focusing on how thought and affect are refined through such a struggle. At the same time, he discusses how these achievements embody literary thought that both incorporates affect and overcomes the anarchism of affect.