The other-granted self of Korean “comfort women”: Analyzing interview narratives of Korean women coerced into the Japanese military’s sexual slavery during World War II

Choe, Hanwool

doi:10.1075/ni.20136.cho

Article published In: Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 33:1 (2023) ► pp.192–221

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The other-granted self of Korean “comfort women”

Analyzing interview narratives of Korean women coerced into the Japanese military’s sexual slavery during World War II

Hanwool Choe | The University of Hong Kong

Published online: 25 November 2021

https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.20136.cho

Abstract

Bringing together “identity as agency” (; ), three-level positioning, and narrative types, I analyze three interview narratives of Korean women coerced into the Japanese military’s sexual slavery during World War II, commonly known as “comfort women”. Through an eye toward “others” – e.g., Japanese soldiers, “comfort station” managers, interviewers, and sociocultural and sociopolitical forces – I investigate the manipulation of the women’s agency with their identities positioned as victims, rather than survivors. Meaning-making strategies, such as “constructed dialogue” (), repetition, deixis, and third turns, present the ways in which various others objectify and marginalize the women as well as control their stories. These illuminate how the women’s identities are granted and defined by others. This other-granted identity work reinforces aspects of language ideologies and ideologies of being silenced.

Keywords: agency, positioning, interview narrative, victimhood narrative, self-making, identity, comfort women, small-n narrative, big-N Narrative, master narrative

Article outline

Introduction
Theoretical background
- Victimhood narrative and interview narrative
  - Others in a victimhood narrative
  - Others in an interview narrative
- Identity as agency, positioning, and narrative types
Korean “comfort women”
The study
Data analysis
- Others in storyworlds
  - Other-chosen language
  - ‘Who wants to go to nibang’
- Others in tellingworlds
  - Third turns
- Others in livingworlds
  - ‘I can’t have babies’
  - ‘yakekuso’
Discussion
Acknowledgements
Note
References

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