The Korean demilitarized zone might be among the most heavily guarded places on earth, but it also provides passage for thousands of defectors, spies, political emissaries, war prisoners, activists, tourists, and others testing the limits of Korean division. This book focuses on a diverse selection of inter-Korean border crossers and the citizenship they acquire based on emotional affiliation rather than constitutional delineation. Using their physical bodies and emotions as optimal frontiers, these individuals resist the state's right to draw geopolitical borders and define their national identity. Drawing on sources that range from North Korean documentary films, museum exhibitions, and theater productions to protester perspectives and interviews with South Korean officials and activists, this volume recasts the history of Korean division and draws a much more nuanced portrait of the region's Cold War legacies. The book ultimately helps readers conceive of the DMZ as a dynamic summation of personalized experiences rather than as a fixed site of historical significance.

DMZ Crossing will have a profound impact not only on the ways we approach the historical significance of the Korean demilitarized zone, the multilayered meanings produced by acts of border crossing, and the issue of national division in Korea but also on our understanding of border crossing as sociocultural performance and its relation to the idea of affective and statist citizenship globally.

About the Author
Suk-Young Kim is a professor of theater and East Asian studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her book Illusive Utopia addresses North Korean state propaganda and rituals, and she is the coauthor of Long Road Home, which documents the oral history of a North Korean labor camp survivor.

Reviews
In this beautifully written and richly documented study, Suk-Young Kim draws on a broad range of sources including memoirs, literature, films, personal interviews, and stage plays, astutely blending ethnography with performance studies and offering fascinating insights into the complex makeup of border crossers, ranging from defectors to tourists, prisoners of war, and politicians. DMZ Crossing is a pathbreaking work whose lively narrative and stunning originality makes it a valuable text for anyone interested in contemporary Korea. -- Jun Yoo, University of Hawai'i at Manoa Brilliantly examining how political divisions inform the emotional tenor of everyday life, Suk-Young Kim's analysis of the DMZ has implications far beyond Korean studies. Expertly braiding testimony from witnesses on both sides of the Korean border, Kim reminds us that political and ideological divisions are often no match for the intensity and duration of emotional ties. This book is an important contribution to performance studies, postcolonial theory, and affect theory. It should be read by all scholars interested in Korean life and culture on both sides of the DMZ. -- Peggy Phelan, Stanford University DMZ Crossing offers much-needed contemplation upon the DMZ and its multiple significations, making an important contribution to the field. -- Suzy Kim American Historical Review Suk-young Kim is rapidly becoming one of the most innovative and insightful scholars writing about North Korea... This is a superb book. Journal of Asian Studies An original contribution to the study of the Korean border, and also has significance for scholarship on affect, citizenship, museums, tourism, media, and theatre and performance history in general. -- Kyounghye Kwon Theatre Survey


Awards
Winner of Outstanding Book Award 2015.



Book Information
ISBN 9780231164825
Author Suk-Young Kim
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press