Reviews for Contentious Kwangju

The average rating for Contentious Kwangju based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-01-13 00:00:00 Joe Ragano This was pretty quick and (unfortunately) simple book. The first section focuses on the history of May 18, which is very straight-forward. The meat of the book lies in the second section, wiyh analyses ranging from the effects on survivors, mythologization and memory across media, a comparative political study on the democratizing effects, and a study on regionalism in Korean politics. As the afterword states, Kwangju has been "vindicated" and is now a watershed moment for political and democratic movements in Korean history and its future. Unfortunately, due to this, there isn't much controversy to these studies - ironic, considering the catchy title. I didn't feel as if there was much to be learned or challenged at all in this book. Overall, this was a decent read and a good summary of the movement, but there were few enlightening moments. May 18 is still an important event in history, but I think it's time to dig a little deeper than what these papers present.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-08-24 00:00:00 Marion Williams This book gives a smart framework to understand the post-Korean war South Korean society. There is not much surprise in her use of Foucauldian ideas but well-structured and well-argued.