Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T21:11:25.127Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Politics of Time: The Sewŏl Ferry Disaster and the Disaster of Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Hyun Ok Park Open the ORCID record for Hyun Ok Park [Opens in a new window]
Hyun Ok Park*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto, Canada
*
Email: hopark@yorku.ca
Get access

Abstract

The vanishing critique of capitalism within the Sewŏl movement for truth finding has revealed the bare face of the current democratic order and its rule of law. This article presents the Sewŏl movement as the bellwether, in a synchronic sense, of the Candlelight Protests that have become a modality of direct action in South Korea. I seek to contribute to our understanding of the life politics that has become a key marker of struggles against the state-capital network since the 2000s. I ascribe the antinomies of truth finding and mourning and of massacre and accident in the Sewŏl movement to the democratic collective unconscious that regards the 1987 moment in South Korea as an irrevocable rupture from dictatorship to democracy. The Sewŏl movement illuminates how the axes of organization and spontaneity and of reformism and revolution in the Candlelight Protest movement are not so much binaries, or oppositions, as hieroglyphic signs of the democratic unconscious and its excesses that contest the temporalizations of the capitalist present.

Keywords

capitalismdemocracydisasterlife politicssocial movementtime and history
Type
Forum: South Korean Candlelight Protest Movement
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 81 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 131 - 144
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1951. The Origins of Totalitarianism. San Diego, Calif.: Harcourt Press.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 2004. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Yugŭn, Chang. 2014. “Chongwŏn. Sewŏlho ‘koŭi ch'immollo’ pon orenji men kkŭmtchik. Sumyŏn wiro ŏlgul naemin Sewŏlho ch'amsa ŭihok” [The Sewŏl ferry was caused to sink on purpose. Horrible men in orange suits. Surfaced suspicion of the Sewŏl disaster]. Chinsil ŭi kil [Power of truth], July 29. http://poweroftruth.net/column/mainView.php?kcat=2015&table=dream_jang&uid=170 (accessed September 17, 2021).Google Scholar
Hyewŏn, Cho et al. , 2009. “Yŏgi saram yi itta”: Taehanmin'guk kaebal chanhoksa, ch’ŏlgŏmin tŭrŭi sam [“There are people here”: The cruel history of the South Korean development and the life of the evictees]. Seoul: Salmiboinŭnch'ang.Google Scholar
Doucette, Jamie, and Koo, Se-Woong. 2016. “Pursuing Post-democratisation: The Resilience of Politics by Public Security in Contemporary South Korea.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 46 (2): 198–221.10.1080/00472336.2015.1094119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eller, Jack David, and Coughlan, Reed M.. 1993. “The Poverty of Primordialism: The Demystification of Ethnic Attachments.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 16 (2): 183–202.10.1080/01419870.1993.9993779CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fassin, Didier. 2018. Life: A Critical User's Manual. London: Pluto.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1990. The History of Sexuality. Vol. 1. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Ch'ansuk, Hong. 2017. “Wihŏm sahoe ŭi chŏngbo yup'o maech'e wa Sewŏlho ch'amsa ŭi ‘kungmin chaenan’ toegi” [Information dissemination network in the risk society and the Sewŏl disaster's becoming a “national disaster”]. In Sewŏlho ka mutko sahoegwakhak i tap'ada [The Sewŏl ferry disaster: Social science perspectives], edited by Lee, Chaeyŏl et al. , 69–114. Seoul: Orŭm.Google Scholar
Kafka, Franz. (1925) 2020. The Trial. New York: Macmillan Collector's Library.Google Scholar
Aeran, Kim, et al. 2014. Nun mŏn chadŭrŭi kukka [The state for the blind]. Seoul: Munhaktongne.Google Scholar
Chinsŏn, Kim. 2014. “Sewŏlho sŏnjang mugŭn haegyŏng susagwan ap'at’ŭ CCTV kirok 2 sigan sakche twaetta” [Two-hour-long CCTV recording was found deleted at the apartment of a Coast Guard where the Sewŏl ferry's captain stayed]. MBC News, May 3. https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2014/nwdesk/article/3457662_30324.html (accessed September 17, 2021).Google Scholar
Chongyŏp, Kim. 2009. 87 Chejeron: Minjuhwa ihu Han'guk sahoe ŭi insik kwa chŏnmang [The 1987 regime thesis: Consciousness and the new prospects of South Korean society after democratization]. Seoul: Ch'angbi.Google Scholar
Kwangil, Kim. 2009. Chotbul hangjaeng kwa chŏhang ŭi mirae: Marŭk’ŭsŭjuŭi chŏk punsŏk [The candlelight struggle and the future of resistance: A Marxist analysis]. Seoul: Ch'aekkalp’i.Google Scholar
Kim, Nan. 2017. “Candlelight and the Yellow Ribbon: Catalyzing Re-Democratization in South Korea.” Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 15 (14): 1–17.Google Scholar
Kim, Nan. 2018. “The Color of Dissent and a Vital Politics of Fragility in South Korea.” Journal of Asian Studies 77 (4): 971–90.10.1017/S0021911818000980CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pot'ong, Kim, et al. 2015. Kŭmyoil en tora oryŏm [Please come back on Friday]. Seoul: Ch'angbi.Google Scholar
Kim Tongch'un. 2015. “Kukka pujae wa kamjŏng chŏngch'i” [The state's absence and the politics of affect]. In Paengmok hang esŏ purŏ onŭn param [Winds from the P'aengmok port], edited by Myŏngwu, No et al. , 155–90. Seoul: Hyŏnsil munhwa.Google Scholar
Korean Bar Association (KBA). 2015. 4.16 Sewŏlho ch'amsa paeksŏ [4.16 Sewŏl ferry disaster white paper]. Seoul: KBA.Google Scholar
Ŭn, Ko, et al. 2014. Uri moduga Sewŏlho yŏtta [We were all the Sewŏl ferry]. Seoul: Silch'onmunhaksa.Google Scholar
Koselleck, Reinhart. 1985. Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kŭmsok nojo Ssangyong chadongch'a chibu nodongja yŏksa hannae, ed. 2010. Haego nŭn sarin ida [Layoff is murder]. Seoul: Hannae.Google Scholar
Chŏngae, Lee. 2014. “Kwangbok ihu kajang chungyohan sagŏn . . . 2040 ‘Sewŏlho’ 5060 ‘Han'gukchŏnjaeng’” [The most important incident after independence. For those aged between 20s and 40s, it is “the Sewŏl disaster.” For those between 50s and 60s, it is “the Korean War”]. Hangyoreh, December 31. http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/671733.html#csidxf0907ad122c9a648e37abc42d2eb73a (accessed September 17, 2021).Google Scholar
Levs, Josh. 2014. “Theories on how a South Korean passenger ferry suddenly sank.” CNN, April 17. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/16/world/asia/south-korea-ship-sinking-cause/index.html (accessed September 17, 2021).Google Scholar
Minbyŏn (Lawyers for a Democratic Society). 2014. 416 Sewŏlho: Minbyŏn ŭi kirok [The 416 Sewŏl ferry: Records by Lawyers for a Democratic Society]. Seoul: Minbyŏn.Google Scholar
Miryang kusul p’ŭrojekt’ŭ. 2014. Miryang ŭl salda [Live Miryang]. Seoul: Owŏrŭibom.Google Scholar
Pae Myonghun. 2014. “Nuga tap'aeya halkka?” [Who must reply?]. In Nun mŏn chatŭrŭi kukka [State of the blind], edited by Aeran, Kim et al. , 99–118. Seoul: Munhaktongne.Google Scholar
Park Geun-hye chŏnggwŏn t'oejin pisang kungmin haengdong kirok kinyŏm wiwŏnhoe [Committee to Archive and Commemorate the People's Emergency Action to Impeach the Park Geun-hye Regime]. 2018. Park Geun-hye chŏnggwŏn t'oejin ch'otpul ŭi kirok [Archives of the Candlelight Protests to impeach the Park Geun-hye regime], vols. I and II. Seoul: Park Geun-hye chŏnggwŏn t'oejin pisang kungmin haengdong kirok kinyŏm wiwŏnhoe.Google Scholar
Park, Hyun Ok. 2015. The Capitalist Unconscious: From Korean Unification to Transnational Korea. New York: Columbia University Press.10.7312/columbia/9780231171922.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, Hyun Ok. Forthcoming. “The Candlelight Revolution in South Korea.” In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements, 2nd ed., edited by Snow, David A., Porta, Donatella della, and McAdam, Doug. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (Ch'amyŏyŏndae, PSPD). 2008. Ŏdŭm ŭn pitch’ŭl yigilsu ŏpsŭminida [The darkness cannot overcome the light]. Seoul: Hangyŏreh.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 1986. Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bo-seon, Shim. 2015. “Kukka p'okryŏk kwa mal” [State violence and language]. An kwa pak 39: 193–217.Google Scholar
Tangdaebip'yŏng. 2009. Kŭdaenŭn oe ch'otpurŭl kkŭsyŏnnayo [Why did you blow out the candle lights?]. Seoul: Tangdaebip'yŏng.Google Scholar
You, Jong-sung, and Park, Youn Min. 2017. “The Legacies of State Corporatism in Korea: Regulatory Capture in the Sewol Ferry Tragedy.” Journal of East Asian Studies 17 (1): 95–118.10.1017/jea.2016.32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sŏngho, Yu. 2014. “‘Taet'ongryŏng nim ŭiwŏn nm kiŏkhaseyo. Kungmin issŏya naraga issŭmnida’” [President and legislators, remember that there must be a people to have a country]. OhmyNews, July 14. http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0002013272 (accessed September 17, 2021).Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 1989. The Sublime Object of Ideology. London: Verso.Google Scholar