Is fieldwork in North Korea possible? Valérie Gelézeau and Benjamin Joinau’s edited volume addresses this question through a heterogeneous combination of introspective travelogues, academic essays, and raw notes as well as “scorias and scolias” (41) documenting the contributors’ past fieldwork and the volume’s editing process. The result is an unorthodox book that challenges academic writing conventions and raises stimulating methodological questions about fieldwork in closed contexts and beyond.
Academic research on North Korea has, in the last three decades, benefited from the increasing availability of primary textual sources. While North Korean state archives and many publications remain inaccessible to foreign scholars, overseas collections and diplomatic archives from former socialist states have offered a plethora of (still underexploited) materials, catalyzing the publication of new monographs and articles that have substantially expanded our understanding of the country’s history, society, and culture. This data expansion, however, has had no equivalent in more field-oriented...
