Heesang Yoon

I am currently focusing on the late 1940s in East Asia, particularly on reformulating the interplay between the operations of the imperial Japan–colonial Korea regime through the purview of the Second World War. My academic background includes extended residence in both Korea and Japan, as well as BA degrees in Japanese literature and philosophy and an MA in modern Korean literature from Korea University. (MA thesis: “Construction and Literary Testimony of Colonized Bodies in Wartime Period: Focusing on Cases of Addiction, Disability, and Defilement.”) My primary interests lie in developing a methodology for apprehending the ungovernable and unpredictable dynamics of the colonized populace within the Total Mobilization system, including representations of failure, discord, and senses of extermination or catastrophe. I also aim to explore ways of redefining violence and war by considering non-linear interconnections, particularly where residues of “enmity” intersect with the geopolitics of the post-liberation or (post-)Cold War era. This inquiry will engage literatures that traversed and translated East Asia from the early twentieth century through World War II, with attention to the non-clichéd traces embedded within them. Themes such as guerrilla warfare, armed resistance, betrayal or treachery, Asiatic imperial managements, culturalism, and racism likewise constitute key areas of interest.