Narratives of the south Korean city: Urban landscapes and decentralized subjectivities in Palizadas colectiva by Yun Heung-gil and La casa del chico by Park Wan-suh.

Abstract

This paper takes up the theoretical perspective that defines how the city operates as a subjectivation device. In addition to this, literature is understood as a space that let authors, among other things, to articulate critical discourses on the various aspects of human activity. Considering these perspectives as background, a literary analysis – of the narrative works Paliza Colectiva by Yun Heung-gil and La Casa del Chico by Park Wan-suh – is carried out. These stories allow us to observe the relationship between city and subjectivity in the South Korean context, a country where cities are built, in the official discourses, as flags of social development and technological progress. This article aims to be an approach to the way in which the critical masses of South Korean authors have problematized the experience of inhabiting the contemporary city. In this way, we recognize in Yun and Park’s stories views that highlight the most degraded aspects of urban spaces, presenting characters whose subjectivities are in tension with their immediate surroundings.