Revisiting Minjung: New Perspectives on the Cultural History of 1980s South Korea

As a recent publication from the Perspectives on Contemporary Korea series from the University of Michigan Press, Revisiting Minjung: New Perspectives on the Cultural History of 1980s South Korea is a welcome addition to recently expanding scholarship on the authoritarian era. Based on collaborative research of over four years and several international conferences, the collection brings together scholars of various disciplines (history, literature, film, music, gender studies) from Korea, Australia, and the United States to shed new light on the 1980s, a decade of pivotal transformation in South Korean history. The 1980s witnessed the rise of the South Korean populace that brought about the long-awaited transition from dictatorship to democracy, as well as a nationwide labor struggle in which over a million workers participated. These movements were shaped by a constellation of social, political, and cultural forces of the broader minjung (the oppressed) movement. Rather than confining the discussion to...