Serk-Bae Suh
Associate Professor, East Asian Studies
School of Humanities
School of Humanities
Ph.D., UCLA
University of California, Irvine
472 Humanities Instructional Bldg.
Irvine, CA 92697
472 Humanities Instructional Bldg.
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Modern Korean Literature
Research Abstract
The primary focus of my scholarship lies on modern Korean literature and the underlying concern guiding my research issues from the inescapable human condition of being with others. My engagement with this concern has resulted in two books and continues to inspire my current research.
My first book Treacherous Translation: Culture, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Korea and Japan from the 1910s to the 1960s (University of California Press, 2013) approaches the problem of being with others by looking at the issue of translation in the context of Japanese colonial rule over Korea and its aftermath. The book examines the role of translation in shaping attitudes toward nationalism and colonialism in Korean and Japanese intellectual discourse from the 1910s through the 1960s. In this book, I conceptualize translation as an ethical and political practice, which interrupts the tyrannical dictation of the self over the other and thus enables the former to encounter the latter in language.
Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea (University of Hawai’i Press, 2025), my second book, envisions an instance of association between the self and others that is radically different from the mode of interactions dictated by instrumental rationality. It looks at sacrifice as an avenue for association unfettered from one’s concern for survival and prosperity and explores the possibility of this vision of sacrifice as a catalyst for rethinking the relevance of literature to society.
Tackling the issue of community, my current research engages the problem of being with others more explicitly than my first two books do. I am conducting this research with the intention of writing my third monograph tentatively entitled The Chance of Being with Others: Accidental Encounters in South Korean Literature.
The question of community arises again as an urgent matter on a global scale as schism in the contemporary world intensifies over a variety of social, cultural, economic, and political issues ranging from gender equity to genocide.
The urgency of this question has acutely reverberated in South Korea as well especially since the debacle of the recent self-coup by its president in December 2024. In the wake of the Seoul Western District Court Riot in which a mob of the president’s supporters attacked the court building, many are questioning whether it is possible to coexist with those at the opposite end of the political spectrum. They increasingly feel those on the other sides are too incompatible to be tolerated. Mutual hostility becomes exponentially amplified as antagonistic voices are readily circulating through social media. The political crisis in South Korea entails growing pessimism over the state of being with others as the intensity of their differences feels too overwhelming for the self to come to terms with. In this context, others are not necessarily those on the margins of society such as minorities, aliens, and refugees but anyone with whom the self cannot but share the world regardless of the self’s willingness to do so. The overpowering aversion to incompatible others calls into question the premise of the deliberative model of democracy that opposing views can and should reach a consensus through rational discourse.
The polarizing political climate of contemporary society tasks us with rethinking the problem of being with others, that is, the issue of community. With this urgent task in mind, the Chance of Being with Others treats literary works that feature various modes of association with others. It especially explores the ways in which literature captures moments of accidental encounters between disaggregated individuals, flashing the possibility of a heterogeneous community that is not bound by commonness but occasioned by chance. The texts examined in this research include Yi Chongjun’s literary reflection on the asynchrony of others, Oh Junghee’s portrayals of the fragility of human relations, and Yoon Dae-nyeong’s tales about a lone individual barren of intimacy. In the end, the research celebrates literary works that illustrate the significance of chance in experiencing different modes of association with others than a bond predetermined by common ground.
My first book Treacherous Translation: Culture, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Korea and Japan from the 1910s to the 1960s (University of California Press, 2013) approaches the problem of being with others by looking at the issue of translation in the context of Japanese colonial rule over Korea and its aftermath. The book examines the role of translation in shaping attitudes toward nationalism and colonialism in Korean and Japanese intellectual discourse from the 1910s through the 1960s. In this book, I conceptualize translation as an ethical and political practice, which interrupts the tyrannical dictation of the self over the other and thus enables the former to encounter the latter in language.
Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea (University of Hawai’i Press, 2025), my second book, envisions an instance of association between the self and others that is radically different from the mode of interactions dictated by instrumental rationality. It looks at sacrifice as an avenue for association unfettered from one’s concern for survival and prosperity and explores the possibility of this vision of sacrifice as a catalyst for rethinking the relevance of literature to society.
Tackling the issue of community, my current research engages the problem of being with others more explicitly than my first two books do. I am conducting this research with the intention of writing my third monograph tentatively entitled The Chance of Being with Others: Accidental Encounters in South Korean Literature.
The question of community arises again as an urgent matter on a global scale as schism in the contemporary world intensifies over a variety of social, cultural, economic, and political issues ranging from gender equity to genocide.
The urgency of this question has acutely reverberated in South Korea as well especially since the debacle of the recent self-coup by its president in December 2024. In the wake of the Seoul Western District Court Riot in which a mob of the president’s supporters attacked the court building, many are questioning whether it is possible to coexist with those at the opposite end of the political spectrum. They increasingly feel those on the other sides are too incompatible to be tolerated. Mutual hostility becomes exponentially amplified as antagonistic voices are readily circulating through social media. The political crisis in South Korea entails growing pessimism over the state of being with others as the intensity of their differences feels too overwhelming for the self to come to terms with. In this context, others are not necessarily those on the margins of society such as minorities, aliens, and refugees but anyone with whom the self cannot but share the world regardless of the self’s willingness to do so. The overpowering aversion to incompatible others calls into question the premise of the deliberative model of democracy that opposing views can and should reach a consensus through rational discourse.
The polarizing political climate of contemporary society tasks us with rethinking the problem of being with others, that is, the issue of community. With this urgent task in mind, the Chance of Being with Others treats literary works that feature various modes of association with others. It especially explores the ways in which literature captures moments of accidental encounters between disaggregated individuals, flashing the possibility of a heterogeneous community that is not bound by commonness but occasioned by chance. The texts examined in this research include Yi Chongjun’s literary reflection on the asynchrony of others, Oh Junghee’s portrayals of the fragility of human relations, and Yoon Dae-nyeong’s tales about a lone individual barren of intimacy. In the end, the research celebrates literary works that illustrate the significance of chance in experiencing different modes of association with others than a bond predetermined by common ground.
Publications
Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea (Manoa: University of Hawai'i Press, 2025)
Treacherous Translation: Culture, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Korea and Japan from the 1910s to the 1960s (Berkeley: Global, Area, and International Archive/University of California Press, 2013)
"Against the Chains of Utility: Antiutilitarian Sacrifice in Cho Sehui’s A Little Ball Launched by the Dwarf," Journal of Korean Studies, 28.1 (2023): 91–110.
"Gender and Class Dynamics in the Utilitarian Discourse of the Developmental State and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea." In Heekyoung Cho (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Korean Literature. (Routledge, 2022)
"A False Martyr's Wager: Yi Kwangsu and Colonial Collaboration." In Charles R. Kim, Jungwon Kim, Hwasook Nam, and Serk-Bae Suh (Eds.), Beyond Death: The Politics of Suicide and Martyrdom in Korea. (University of Washington Press, 2019)
““Oh Jesus, Now Here with Us”: Literary Christology in 1970s and 1980s South Korea.” In Youngju Ryu ed. Cultures of Yusin (University of Michigan Press, 2018)
"Colonialism, Translation, Literature: Takahama Kyoshi’s Passage to Korea." In H. Shirane, D. Lurie, T. Suzuki (Eds.), Cambridge History of Japanese Literature. (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
“The Location of “Korean” Culture: Ch’oe Chaes? and Korean Literature in a Time of Transition,” Journal of Asian Studies, 70.1 (Spring 2011): 53-75.
“Treacherous Translation: the 1938 Japanese-Language Theatrical Version of the Korean Tale Ch’unhyangj?n,” positions: east asia cultures critique, 18. 1 (Spring 2010): 171-197.
Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5338
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5338
Last updated
09/01/2025
09/01/2025