Beyond trauma: Positive postmemories among second- and third-generation North Korean war refugees

Abstract

In this article, I discuss how children and grandchildren of North Korean war refugees who were displaced during the Korean War construct identity and belonging in relation to their North Korean heritage. Drawing from the concept of postmemory, I examine how their northern heritage is experienced, constructed, mediated, and even solidified across generations who did not directly experience the Korean War. Unlike existing literature that predominantly focuses on the traumatic aspects of postmemory, I found that one’s construction of postmemory also encompasses positive family memories. These affirming memories exist alongside traumatic ones, countering the overdetermined paradigm of trauma across memory studies. Thus, I propose alternative ways of remembering that capture a nuanced understanding of how the second and third generations construct positive postmemories alongside the traumatic memories of their ancestors.