Abstract
In this article I analyze the constitution of selfhood by exploring those narratives about personality that are at the heart of middle-aged South Korean women's social mobility stories. In this project I consider agency as a discursive phenomenon: it is not an asset but is instead a particular narrative convention. Thus selfhoods are variously fortified by agency or overdetermined by larger social and historical forces. This article thereby contributes to a narrative understanding of social transformation and the rendering of social justice over periods of rapid social change such as the recent past in post-Korean War South Korea.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 786-811 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | American Ethnologist |
Volume | 24 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 1997 |
Keywords
- Class
- Gender
- Narrative
- Personality
- Selfhood
- Social mobility
- South Korea
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Anthropology