Beyond the Sewol

On April 16, 2014, the Sewol ferry capsized off the southwestern coast of South Korea, killing 304 people, including 250 students. The helplessness that many Koreans and others felt at the sinking was sharpened by the ways the Korean government mishandled the disaster, which has become the most galvanizing event in contemporary South Korean history. Throughout this rollercoaster of national trauma, public outrage, hope for change, and broken promises, an activist movement has taken shape among artists working through the medium of performance to process the disaster, commemorate its victims, and advocate for public change.
Beyond the Sewol is the first book to spotlight this creative fluorescence of performative work, which spans the genres of theatre productions, exhibitions, interactive memorial events, site-specific public performances, street protests, and even commercial K-pop music videos. Korean artists, often working in collaboration with Sewol families and survivors, have created a public memory archive that counters official versions of the event. These performances have provided an arena through which activists have linked the project of commemorating the Sewol to broader demands for changes in politics and society, especially around issues of government accountability, redress for victims, and public empathy for survivors. By identifying and analyzing a multimedia collection of performative works commemorating the Sewol, this book reveals the ways in which activists and artists mobilizing performative strategies have labored to transform the meaning of the Sewol from an unresolved national trauma into a catalyst for creating a safer, fairer, and more caring society.