ABSTRACT
This chapter examines cultural memory of the authoritarian era through the motif of torture. After creating a typology of how torture has been represented in South Korean films, art, graphic novels, and fiction of the past three decades, the chapter turns to Cheon Woon-young’s Ginger, a novel that rewrites the patriarchal script of authoritarianism as a daughter’s tale. Embedding a close reading of the text within two historical contexts of transitional justice and authoritarian nostalgia, the chapter explores politico-ethical dimensions of an ongoing hegemonic struggle over how to come to terms with South Korea’s authoritarian past.
