Transforming the Unsaid into Action in Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

Abstract

Often, the act of listening can transform silence into speech. Nam Joo Cho’s 2016 novel Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 sparked a feminist movement in South Korea. Instead of creating a character who is clearly articulating a feminist cause, Cho finds ways to speak of gendered injustices by using alternative modes of communication such as silence, howls, psychotic breaks, and footnotes. Jiyoung’s omission of speech externalizes what is thought and felt by many Korean women but left unsaid. The novel ultimately asks readers to hear the unsaid, react to Jiyoung’s experienced injustices, and turn what Jiyoung struggled to articulate into a collective act of solidarity, collective voice, and feminist action.