Inter-imperial Aesthetics: Korean and Korean Diasporic Literature between Empires

Korean culture is a paradigmatic case for studying inter-imperial dynamics as the country’s history has been shaped by the interplay of four competing empires: China, Japan, Russia, and the US. This essay examines Korean diasporic literature and argues, first, that understanding a colonial author’s inter-imperial positionality allows texts to be reinterpreted in light of the matrix of competing forces in the inter-imperial sphere. Second, the essay looks at the distinctive Korean concept of han as a product of the nation’s inter-imperial history to consider how this aesthetic tradition continues to be a hallmark of contemporary diasporic fiction.