CKS Distinguished Korean Studies Scholars Lecture Series: "Why Aren’t There Any War Cemeteries in North Korea?"

December 2, 2009
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM, 4pm, 1080 S. University, Suite 1636, School of Social Work Building

Host Department: Center for Korean Studies (CKS)

Heonik Kwon, Reader in Anthropology, London School of Economics.

Further Information

The cemeteries of the fallen soldiers, together with the Tomb of Unknown Soldier, are important material and symbolic objects in the history of modern political life and in that of modern public  aesthetics. This is evident not only in Europe and North America, but also in many parts of the non-Western, postcolonial world. North Korea is a striking exception to this fairly universal modern culture of war commemoration. No publicly known cemeteries of fallen soldiers exist in North Korea, despite the fact that the country experienced one of the most violent civil wars of the past century - the Korean War (1950-1953) - as part of the global Cold War and during its formative era. The lecture will explore North Korea's culture of commemoration, questioning how the country's political order could sustain the devastating effects of a modern total war without resorting to what George Mosse calls the cult of the fallen soldiers.

Heonik Kwon is Reader in Anthropology at the London School of Economics. He is the author of the prize-winning After the Massacre: Commemoration and Consolation in Ha My and My Lai (2006) and Ghosts of War in Vietnam (2008). His forthcoming book is The Decomposition of the Cold War.

Contact Information: cks.info@umich.edu