From McArthur’s Landing to Trump’s Fire and Fury: Sonic Depictions of Struggle and Sacrifice in a North Korean Short Story, Film, and Opera

Abstract:Since its founding in 1948, the North Korean state has devoted considerable resources to the development of ideological and historical narratives across media to imbue its people with the ethos of collectivity through spectacle. Especially noteworthy is how sound has functioned to resuscitate the memory of the Korean War and in the process unify those of disparate generations and occupations into a coherent national community. Adopting an intermedial analytical lens, and informed by participant observation undertaken in Pyongyang, this paper examines three retellings of the Battle of Incheon (1950): the 1952 short story "Burning Island," the 1982 film Wolmi Island, and the 2017 revolutionary opera Three Days of Wolmi Island. While the short story used the sounds of explosions to trigger a shared sense memory of the Korean War, the film used music and sound to universalize the heroic role of the Wolmi Island defenders across all sectors of society, and idealize self-sacrifice in a new era. Then, as tensions between the United States and the DPRK reached a boiling point in 2017, North Korea revived the story as a revolutionary opera to remind all citizens of the devastation of the Korean War, and their obligation to defend the nation from imperial aggression. In examining the transference of sound across these media, we shed light on how North Korean writers and artists have employed various forms of sonic culture in increasingly affective ways to enhance an in-group mentality and emphasize the need for unwavering commitment to the Korean Workers' Party.