SELECTED ORAL HISTORIES OF THE MAY 18 GWANGJU UPRISING

광주 오월 민중항쟁 사료 전집 영문 번역

김연민 , Robert Grotjohn 저자(글)

전남대학교출판문화원 · 2023년 02월 28일

책 소개

These stories can help any reader consider the human potential of ordinary people faced with the oppression of an authoritarian state. They also offer a darker glimpse into the potential for inhuman behavior of those who have surrendered to the false narratives of such a state. The current rise of authoritarian tendencies and sympathies in today’s world makes this translation an even more valuable contribution to a hope for a more egalitarian and democratic world. . . . These particular histories transcend their historical moment, connecting the Gwangju people to a more broadly shared human desire for freedom from state oppression. These histories make available in their English translation, the great, though sometimes flawed, fundamental human dignity that the Gwangju people claimed in their rising up. Revisiting that dignity might echo with nostalgia, but it also resounds with the possibility of a better future.

작가정보

저자(글) 김연민

KIM Yeon-Min

저자(글) Robert Grotjohn

목차

• ■Acknowledgments / 008
  ■Introduction / 009
  ■Foreword / 014
  
  Ⅰ. Preface / 019
  1. Records of Blood beyond Death / 020
  2. In Historical Succession to the Spirit of the Uprising / 023
  
  Ⅱ. Trauma / 027
  1. Sangmudae / 028
  2. Gwangju Prison / 045
  
  Ⅲ. Murderous Oppression / 057
  1. Geumnam-ro / 058
  2. In Front of the Jeonnam Province Hall / 095
  
  Ⅳ. Critical Consciousness / 133
  1. Chonnam National University(CNU) / 134
  2. Gwangju Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation(MBC) / 170
  3. The Fountain Plaza(the Province Hall) / 189
  4. The Province Hall / 222
  
  Ⅴ. Fierce Battles / 337
  1. The Gwangju Station / 338
  2. Gwangju Park / 353
  3. The Province Hall / 386
  4. Gwangju Young Women’s Christian Association(YWCA) / 417
  
  Ⅵ. With the Dead / 441
  1. Sangmugwan(the Province Hall) / 442
  2. The Red Cross Hospital / 457
  
  ■Index / 473
  ■Participants / 478

책 속으로

Ⅰ. Preface
1. “Records of Blood beyond Death”
by LEE Young-Hee
In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Gwangju Democratization Movement, which began in Gwangju and the Jeollanam-do area in May 1980, the year of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the division of the nation, the Modern Korean History Institute collected vivid testimonies about the scenes of struggle and has at last published a collection of historical records. I am confident that it is the largest and most meaningful project since the establishment of this institute.
Compared to the hard work, enthusiasm, and great expectations of many people who dedicated their time and energy for many years to the purpose of this project, I think the result is still limited and leaves a lot to be done in the future. However, in the political situation of today when the main culprits who perpetrated the massacre in May 1980 are still in power even though ten years have passed, the difficulties that the participants in this project, researchers as well as eye-witnesses, had to go through while giving and recording testimonies cannot be overlooked. There is nothing more to be desired from our institute if those who are trying to read this collection understand the difficulties that permeate each word, each sentence, and each page of this record.
Every word of testimony in this collection is made not of letters but of fresh blood. It was not easy to get a line of an eye-witness account or a word of direct experience from the mouths of those who are reluctant to testify out of fear, even though ten years have passed since that time. Testimony from the victims of the military dictatorship, who are to remain disabled for life, is not merely an account of their own desperate experiences, but in itself becomes the blood testimony of countless bitter, traumatized souls, the exact number of whom may never be revealed. Therefore, those who are to read the entire collection of this historical record will hear the cries of the heroic fighters of the day, whose souls are wandering between heaven and earth with their eyes still open.
“The history of blood cannot be obscured by the history of ink.”
The spirit and sacrifice of Gwangju in May 1980, the year which marks the thirty-fifth anniversary after the division of Korea and its people, can be recognized as the event of the “Gwangju National Democratic People’s Armed Resistance” through an academic and historical assessment. It is a rightful and natural assessment. Today’s regime, representing the parties who carried out the anti-human indiscriminate slaughter in Gwangju, has finally and officially recognized the event as a “democratic struggle” rather than as a “riot by violent mobs,” which was the blatant mischaracterization they had tried to invent at first.
The current significance of the May 18 Democratization Movement in Gwangju is immeasurable. It has caused enormous changes over the past decade in military, political, social, ideological, and economic areas as well as in the sense of life and culture. It also has had a great effect on problems of national division and relations with foreign countries. Furthermore, it has created a strong influence on the national identity of Korean people in terms of international politics and diplomacy. It is true that its ideologically explosive power is constantly amplifying. In that sense, May 1980 in Gwangju lasts forever. This is so because it has become a symbol of the spirit of Korean people inherited through such historical events as the Donghak Peasant Revolution, the March 1 Independence Movement, the armed struggle for liberation from Japanese colonial oppression that took place overseas, and the April 19 Anti- Authoritarian Struggle led by students. The May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement has become a comprehensive representation of the struggle for human liberation from injustice and oppression. The true image of the people who had to take up arms for life, freedom, and democracy is vividly revived in this collection. I hope it will be a general reference for the voices of humanitarian values.
Finally, I sincerely appreciate the effort of Professor SONG Ki-Sook, director of the Korea Modern History Institute, who has been working on the whole business from planning to completing this project. And I also give credit to the hard work of the researchers who were directly in charge of all the activities on the front line.

2. “In Historical Succession to the Spirit of the Uprising”
by SONG Ki-Sook
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of the May Uprising in Gwangju, the publication of Selected Oral Histories of the May 18 Gwangju Uprising is very rewarding for those who have participated in this project. It seems that our Institute is the first to attempt to compile all data, including the oral testimonies of the participants, for a single historical event.
For the decade since the Uprising, political reality has constantly betrayed the great spirit of the Gwangju People’s Uprising. Consequently, we have reached the tenth anniversary without even enacting a compensation law. Furthermore, the process of political discussion on the compensation law made the mistake of greatly distorting even the spirit of the Uprising. However, no matter how much politics betrays the spirit of the People’s Uprising, the spirit of it is neither faded nor damaged. The more politics betrays, the more the spirit of the Uprising will shine brightly as an indicator of our historical development. The May People’s Uprising in Gwangju proves that the people are the substance of the nation and the subjects of history. The people stand tall in our history as a model and symbol of the resistance that faithfully fulfills the legitimate demands of the nation in protecting our nation from the forces of wicked imperialism and fighting against comprador dictatorships relying on a foreign power.
Along with the project of collecting the oral testimonies during the Gwangju People’s Uprising, our Institute is planning a larger- scale conference than that of the last year. While continuing to collect important data on modern history centered on the Gwangju Uprising, we plan to hold an annual conference to continually examine the idea and spirit of the Uprising as the original starting point for the development of modern Korean history.
The reason our Institute planned to collect data on the May People’s Uprising in Gwangju as the first project, and put special emphasis on transcribing the testimonies of the participants, is to vividly record each individual’s noble spirit of resistance and uncorrupted passion at the time of the Uprising and pass them on to future generations. Their testimonies, therefore, may serve not only as historical material but also as a living lesson in itself. Every one of them is as beautiful and precious as a flower, as they willingly threw their lives at daggers and rifles. As a mere historical document, transcribing 500 people’s testimonies of a single event may seem to be too much. Still, all investigators tirelessly visited them, listened to their stories, and recorded them because all the stories were as beautiful and precious as flowers.
Such direct oral statements by the participants are bound to have fundamental weaknesses in terms of historical records because it is a natural human psychological symptom to exaggerate or reduce in some cases as one is talking about what one has done. We reviewed the method from various angles in our own way before recording, but we have to admit that there was a lack of sufficient methodological review from a more scientific point of view of oral history. In this respect, this collection is meaningful as an attempt; therefore, the problems that emerge here with this attempt will bring a further task to the academic world. In the course of the development of modern Korean history,

기본정보

ISBN	9788968499531
발행(출시)일자	2023년 02월 28일
쪽수	480쪽
크기	153 * 226 * 27 mm / 801 g
총권수	1권