Geopolitics has been a significant driving force in shaping global SF literary history since the 19th century, surpassing the influence of science and technology. However, its impact has been largely overlooked in Korean SF studies. In modern and cont...
Geopolitics has been a significant driving force in shaping global SF literary history since the 19th century, surpassing the influence of science and technology. However, its impact has been largely overlooked in Korean SF studies. In modern and contemporary Korean literary history, SF is often discovered and evaluated based on its relevance to science and technology, while the importance of SF in relation to the imagination spurred by the geopolitical conditions and crises of the Korean peninsula, surrounded by major powers, has not been fully acknowledged or investigated. This study aims to reveal the origins of various imaginative and historical movements incorporated into science fiction and the reasons behind the repeated stifling and overlooking of science fiction creation in South Korea. To achieve this, we propose a problem-setting framework called ‘Geopolitical SF’. This framework envisions potential wars, domestic and international security crises, and radical social changes in the future, based on the hegemonic plans and territorial constraints of major powers. The threshold of imagination that constrains both creators and readers also arises from geopolitical crises.
In the theoretical stage, we will first address three questions. Why should it be called ‘SF’ instead of ‘Science Fiction’? What specific evidence demonstrates the importance of ‘geopolitics’ in the early formation of SF? How does geopolitics both enable and suppress ‘extrapolation’ as a creative technique in SF? Subsequently, this paper will summarize the issues of ‘geopolitics’ present throughout Korean SF created and published during the colonial period while rediscovering the genealogy of 'Choi In-hoon's writing' from the perspective of geopolitical SF.
Through Choi In-hoon's 「The Governor's Voice」(1967-1976), Lee Moon-yeol's 「The General and the Doctor」(1989), and Ko Jong-seok's 「They Don't Say That in My Hometown!」(2008), we will explore the connections of ‘geopolitical SF’ in South Korean literary history. Engrossed in speculative writing experiments influenced by the gravitational pull of geopolitical fatalism, the Cold War, and colonialism on the Korean peninsula, Choi In-hoon's writing serves as a progress report on the impossible imagination and thought of the Korean peninsula from the emergence of colonial modern literature to the 1960s. Choi's writing deserves credit for the intermittent publication of science fiction in South Korean literary history, as it actively embraces geopolitical risks and underdevelopment complexes while confronting history and reality.