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North Korea's Mundane Revolution
Socialist Living and the Rise of Kim Il Sung, 1953–1965
Andre Schmid
- 328 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
North Korea's Mundane Revolution
Socialist Living and the Rise of Kim Il Sung, 1953–1965
Andre Schmid
About This Book
When the crucial years after the Korean War are remembered today, histories about North Korea largely recount a grand epic of revolution centering on the ascent of Kim Il Sung to absolute power. Often overshadowed in this storyline, however, are the myriad ways the Korean population participated in party-state projects to rebuild their lives and country after the devastation of the war. North Korea's Mundane Revolution traces the origins of the country's long-term durability in the questions that Korean women and men raised about the modern individual, housing, family life, and consumption. Using a wide range of overlooked sources, Andre Schmid examines the formation of a gendered socialist lifestyle in North Korea by focusing on the localized processes of socioeconomic and cultural change. This style of "New Living" replaced radical definitions of gender and class revolution with the politics of individual self-reform and cultural elevation, leading to a depoliticization of the country's political culture in the very years that Kim Il Sung rose to power.
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Table of contents
- Series Page
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Note on Korean Romanization and Usage
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: North Korea’s Mundane Revolution
- 1. The Anxieties of Socialist Transition
- Part One: Cultural Living and the Ever-Striving Socialist Self
- Part Two: The Political Economy of Apartments
- Part Three: Making Happy Family Homes
- Part Four: The Ambivalences of Consumption
- Conclusion: Looking Up at Comrade Kim
- Appendix: An Essay on North Korean Print Media Sources
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index