On April 16th, 2014, South Korea was struck by the shocking sinking of the MV Sewol, displayed minute by minute on all the tv channels of the country. Among the victims were more than 250 high school students on a field trip. Not only was the loss of so many young lives terrible to face for the bereaved families and the Korean people, but in the aftermaths of the disaster, the darkest sides of the Korean society (among which the lack of interest for citizen’s safety) were gradually revealed to the public, eventually leading to the impeachment of former President Park.
Even if time has gone, the scars of this dramatic event are still deep and far from being healed. Beyond the constant presence of yellow ribbons and establishment of memorials, this can be felt in a lot of the writings (often literary) dealing with the disaster and published during the last 10 years in Korea. This paper aims at (1) introducing the Sewol Literature (4.16 문학) which was born from the disaster and the various genres (poetry, fiction and non-fiction) that can be gathered inside in an attempt to tell about this event as thoroughly as possible ; and (2) looking back on the impact of those works in both the understanding of the phenomenon for the readers (as a whole and in details) and the possibility of healing the collective trauma through the creation of a community of grief when gathering around works sharing similar emotions.

Authors:
Lucie Angheben, University of New Caledonia, New Caledonia

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Lucie ANGHEBEN is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at University of New Caledonia in New Caledonia (French)

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