Author

Publication

2011 - Distributed by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, Massachusetts

Language

English

Word Count

65,000 words, Guess

Page Count

260 pages

Identifiers

and 3 more
  • Better World Books9780674062474
  • Better World BooksP8-AUC-864
  • Open LibraryOL25131947M

Classifications

  • DDC895.7/09
  • LCCPL997.A25 R93 2011
  • LCCPL997.A25 R93 2012
and 1 more
  • LCCDS935.773

Description

In this innovative book, Sonia Ryang casts new light onto the study of North Korean culture and society by reading literary texts as sources of ethnographic data. Analyzing and interpreting the rituals and language embodied in a range of literary works published in the 1970s and 1980s, Ryang focuses critical attention on three central themes -- love, war, and self -- that reflect the nearly complete overlap of the personal, social, and political realms in North Korean society. The ideology embedded in these propagandistic works laid the cultural foundation for the nation as a "perpetual ritual state," where social structures and personal relations are suspended in tribute to Kim Il Sung, the political and spiritual leader who died in 1994 but lives eternally in the hearts of his people and still weaves the social fabric of present-day North Korea. -- Book jacket.

Subjects

Series Statement

  • Harvard East Asian monographs -- 341

Reader Reviews

No reviews yet for this book.

Be the first to share your thoughts!