Emotions, Affects, and Narrative in Korean History and Culture

This collection of eleven essays explores emotions and affect in Korean culture across a broad temporal span, from the Koryo dynasty (918-1392) to the present.Drawing on a diverse array of sources-including memoirs, diplomatic letters, newspapers, films, video diaries, photographs, and ethnographic interviews-the volume examines how emotions intervene in public discourse and how affect is shaped, intensified, and managed through expressive practices.Each contributor’s critical intervention lies in offering a non-essentializing approach to studying emotions and affect in Korea.Rather than positing uniquely "Korean" feelings such as han or hwabyong as inherent or fixed emotional traits, the contributors argue that what is culturally distinctive is not the emotions themselves but how they have been expressed, mediated, and interpreted within specific social relationships and historical experiences.In this framework, emotions and affect are not static or universal but are historically and