UC Irvine

While narratives of sacrifice, sorrow, and suffering at the hands of colonizing forces have profoundly shaped Korean historical consciousness, particularly in the 20th century, their everyday manifestations in contemporary South Korea have received limited critical attention. This dissertation delves into the mundane affective experiences associated with historical trauma, examining Korean shamanism, the work of contemporary dancemaker Eun-Me Ahn, street protests of the seventies using madangguk, and the diasporic circulation of Korean culinary culture. I employ performance studies, which facilitate innovative theorizations of the ordinary and ingrained aspects within the domain of the unseen and unspoken, alongside affect theory, postcolonial and decolonial studies, ethnic studies, and Indigenous theories, to offer analytical perspectives grounded in the Korean semantics and aesthetics. I bring together concepts such as han (sorrow), heung (joy), and jeong (care) as an affective triad in Introduction chapter to unveil the intricate affective layers contained within each performance practice studied in the following chapters. This contribution helps establish a generative critical practice in South Korea, thereby fostering novel modes of perception that can bring further insights to other postcolonial communities. Throughout the dissertation, I explore the questions: What defines Korean indigeneity, beyond institutionalized notions of tradition and culture, and how can it be addressed and identified? What emerges when we examine a community’s cultural affect and what we might term its historical unconscious through the lens of performance studies? How does the Korean cultural unconscious create productive dialogues with experiences from other cultures and ethnic groups? Commencing with an examination of Korean shamanism as the roots of Korean performance ontology, each chapter broadens the scope of inquiry. It begins by identifying the persistent influence of shamanic traditions in contemporary dance, proceeds to critically evaluate the constraints of performative engagement within the political context, and concludes by suggesting potential avenues for transnational connections through the inclusion of the Korean diaspora in the discourse.