Emotions, Affect, and Narrative in Korean History and Culture

This collection of eleven essays explores emotions and affect in Korean culture across a broad temporal span, from the Koryŏ dynasty (918–1392) to the present. Drawing on a diverse array of sources—including memoirs, diplomatic letters, newspapers, films, video diaries, photographs, and ethnographic interviews—the volume examines how emotions intervene in public discourse and how affect is shaped, intensified, and managed through expressive practices. Each contributor’s critical intervention lies in offering a non-essentializing approach to studying emotions and affect in Korea. Rather than positing uniquely "Korean" feelings such as han or hwabyŏng as inherent or fixed emotional traits, the contributors argue that what is culturally distinctive is not the emotions themselves but how they have been expressed, mediated, and interpreted within specific social relationships and historical experiences. In this framework, emotions and affect are not static or universal but are historically and discursively produced.

Emotions, Affect, and Narrative in Korean History and Culture also contends that to understand the present, we must critically engage with the emotional content of the past. By analyzing how different historical actors and social groups expressed particular feelings at specific moments, the essays illuminate how emotions and affect were used to narrate lived experiences and construct discourses in textual, literary, and visual forms. Together, these studies reveal how emotions and affect have functioned as a powerful medium for shaping collective memory, identity, and political subjectivity in Korea. Structured in three parts, the volume explores how emotions and affect have taken shape across different historical epochs and social milieus in Korea. Each contributor examines the shifting ways these emotional narratives have been formed, expressed, and transformed over time. Emotions, Affect, and Narrative in Korean History and Culture contributes to the dynamic field of emotion studies by adding important Korean examples.

Contributor: Jisoo M. Kim (Edited by), Dafna Zur (Contributions by), Gregg Brazinsky (Contributions by), Hyaeweol Choi (Contributions by), John Song Pae Cho (Contributions by), Jungwon Kim (Contributions by), Suzy Kim (Contributions by)

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.