Belonging in a House Divided - by Joowon Park (Paperback)

About the Book

"Belonging in a House Divided chronicles the everyday lives of resettled North Korean refugees in South Korea and their experiences of violence, postwar citizenship, and ethnic boundary making. Through extensive ethnographic research, Joowon Park documents the emergence of cultural differences and tensions between Koreans from the North and South, as well as new transnational kinship practices that connect family members across the Korean Demilitarized Zone. As a South Korean citizen raised outside the peninsula and later drafted into the military, Park weaves in autoethnographic accounts of his own experience in the army to provide an empathetic and vivid analysis of the multiple overlapping layers of violence that shape the embodied experiences of belonging. He asks readers to consider why North Korean resettlement in South Korea is a difficult process, despite a shared goal of reunification and the absence of a language barrier. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in anthropology, migration, and the politics of humanitarianism"--

Book Synopsis

Belonging in a House Divided chronicles the everyday lives of resettled North Korean refugees in South Korea and their experiences of violence, postwar citizenship, and ethnic boundary making. Through extensive ethnographic research, Joowon Park documents the emergence of cultural differences and tensions between Koreans from the North and South, as well as new transnational kinship practices that connect family members across the Korean Demilitarized Zone. As a South Korean citizen raised outside the peninsula and later drafted into the military, Park weaves in autoethnographic accounts of his own experience in the army to provide an empathetic and vivid analysis of the multiple overlapping layers of violence that shape the embodied experiences of belonging. He asks readers to consider why North Korean resettlement in South Korea is a difficult process, despite a shared goal of reunification and the absence of a language barrier. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in anthropology, migration, and the politics of humanitarianism.

From the Back Cover

"Belonging in a House Divided is a theoretically grounded and nuanced ethnography of the experiences of North Koreans who have resettled in South Korea. With a substantive focus on notions of citizenship, gendered migration, family reunification, and adoption, Joowon Park illuminates an understudied population, the examination of which opens up an array of complexities. His scholarship makes a unique and significant contribution to our knowledge about North Korea."--Grace M. Cho, author of Tastes Like War: A Memoir

"Deeply thoughtful, compelling, and the first of its kind, Joowon Park's book offers a richly detailed and fascinating ethnographic study of the everyday lives of resettled North Korean refugees in South Korea. This book advances our understanding of the two Koreas by a quantum leap by untangling the tortured politics and cultural challenges of North Korean refugee resettlement that reflect the ongoing violence of a war that has yet to end."--Theodore Jun Yoo, author of The Koreas: The Birth of Two Nations Divided

"Park's ethnographic account of resettled North Koreans in South Korea challenges readers and Korean society at large to rethink violence, citizenship, and belonging. His retelling and analysis of the resettlement experience are rife with rich detail and insights only possible due to his long-term personal relationships with these communities and his experience in the South Korean army. Global audiences will also take an interest in the book's engagement with regional and global factors of North Korean migration, such as the role of China and global humanitarian discourse."--Gi-Wook Shin, William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea, Stanford University

Review Quotes

"This book effectively challenges the monolithic discourse on North Korean violence and provides a more nuanced understanding of North Koreans' resettlement experiences in South Korea. . . . The legacies of national division and unresolved war continue to permeate the lives of individuals across time and space."-- "Pacific Affairs"

"Belonging in a House Divided is an important addition to the fields of anthropology, migration studies, Cold War studies, and Korean studies. Park has contributed valuable scholarship to understandings of belonging, citizenship, and home in a nation divided... A classic of Korean studies."-- "H-Net Reviews"

"Belonging in a House Divided offers a novel perspective. . . it invites readers to critically examine the interplay between violence, displacement, and the pursuit of belonging, thereby expanding our comprehension of the intricate realities surrounding migratory processes."-- "International Migration Review"

"Park's book is highly recommended as a critical antidote to the often generic and diluted representations of North Koreans. . .This book is worthwhile reading for any observer and student of (North) Korean studies, citizenship and migration, gender studies, cultural anthropology, human rights, and politics."-- "Asian Journal of Social Science"

"A horrific yet compassionate story."-- "Ethnic and Racial Studies"

About the Author

Joowon Park is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Skidmore College.