Han and/as Ressentiment: Lessons from Minjung Theology†
Anthropology and Sociology, Korea Research Centre of Western Australia, The University of Western Australia, Perth 6009, Australia
†
This article uses the McCune–Reischauer system in romanizing Korean words. However, it retains the romanization system used in the original texts when quoting and for names of scholars and public figures.
Academic Editor: Edward Foley
Religions 2021, 12(2), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12020072
Received: 5 January 2021 / Revised: 20 January 2021 / Accepted: 21 January 2021 / Published: 22 January 2021
Following calls in recent critical debates in English-language Korean studies to reevaluate the cultural concept of han (often translated as “resentment”), this article argues for its reconsideration from the vantage point of minjung theology, a theological perspective that emerged in South Korea in the 1970s, which has been dubbed the Korean version of “liberation theology”. Like its Latin American counterpart, minjung theology understood itself in explicitly political terms, seeking to reinvigorate debates around the question of theodicy—the problem of suffering vis-à-vis the existence of a divine being or order. Studying some of the ways in which minjung theologians connected the concept of han to matters of suffering, this article argues, offers an opening towards a redirection from han’s dominant understanding within academic discourse and public culture as a special and unique racial essence of Korean people. Moreover, by putting minjung theology in conversation with contemporary political theory, in particular the works of Wendy Brown and Lauren Berlant, this article hopes to bring minjung theology to the attention of critical theory.
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Keywords:
han; minjung theology; ressentiment; emotional epistemology
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Han, S. Han and/as Ressentiment: Lessons from Minjung Theology. Religions 2021, 12, 72. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12020072
AMA Style
Han S. Han and/as Ressentiment: Lessons from Minjung Theology. Religions. 2021; 12(2):72. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12020072
Chicago/Turabian StyleHan, Sam. 2021. "Han and/as Ressentiment: Lessons from Minjung Theology" Religions 12, no. 2: 72. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12020072
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