[Feature] From the Place of the (In)Human / Jeon Gi-hwa
The Quarterly Changbi 196, Summer 2022
Abstract
As the pandemic forces us to fundamentally rearrange our understanding of humans, literary representations of non-human beings have also become more frequent. Paying attention to this trend, Jeon Gi-hwa offers us a broad overview of Korean fiction dealing with imaginary beings, including “plants, cyborgs, extraterrestrials, and ghosts.” In particular, she comparatively analyzes novels by Kim Choyeop and Cheon Seonran, as well as short stories by Lim Sun-woo and Kim Mella, which introduce tales of strange ghosts outside of the traditional grievance-resolution narrative. She calmly persuades us that attention to non-human beings can awaken new sensibilities and offer us momentum in becoming more closely connected with our world.