Memory Construction and the Politics of Time in Neoliberal South Korea

“Raising strong challenges to the widely held triumphalism of the late 1980s, Namhee Lee offers an epic narrative of failed human and social progress in the exit from the bipolarized twentieth-century world. She shows how the hurried hopes of the time, together with the restructuring of global economic chains, broke apart the long-nurtured ideal of revolutionary social transformation. This book is social history of the post--Cold War transition at its best and a timely intervention into some of the most critical questions in contemporary Korean studies. Essential reading.” - Heonik Kwon, author of After the Korean War: An Intimate History

“Namhee Lee makes a crucial contribution to scholarship on post--Cold War South Korea. Her incisive analysis of the work of South Korean novelists and literary figures, public intellectuals, and politicians illuminates big questions about progressive history in relation to the legacies of the democratization movement, the expansion of global capital, and cultural neoliberalization. This brilliant and timely book will be highly welcome by scholars of South Korean culture, literature, and history.” - Eleana J. Kim, author of Making Peace with Nature: Ecological Encounters along the Korean DMZ

"Lee’s book makes a significant contribution to current literature on social memory, in particular, by demonstrating how memory becomes a tool for mass media to construct alternate narratives of history and collective memories of the past." - Charlotte Hammond, European Journal of Korean Studies

"Memory Reconstruction is a welcome addition not only for those interested in Korean politics and history but also more broadly for readers interested in learning how democratization and democracy can be fragile under the persistence of the Cold War system and the blunt desires of neoliberal capitalist forces. The book further contributes to a comparative, historical understanding of the Far Right in the East Asian context." - Yoonkyung Lee, Journal of Asian Studies

"Memory Construction and the Politics of Time in Neoliberal South Korea opens new avenues for the study of neoliberalism and social memory. Lee does an admirable job of providing empirically and theoretically rich accounts of collective memory in post-1987 South Korea. By offering a cultural history of the 1990s and 2000s, the book deepens our understanding of South Korea’s ongoing turn to right-wing populism." - Bohyeong Kim, Acta Koreana