When the Dead Defend the State: Spectral Loyalty in Late Chosŏn Korea

Speaker: Solmi Chung, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sinographic Literatures, Korea University

Moderator: Jungwon Kim, King Sejong Associate Professor of Korean Studies, EALAC, Columbia University

Solmi Chung is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sinographic Literatures at Korea University. Her work focuses on premodern Korean literature, especially ghost tales and their intersections with gender and memory politics in late Chosŏn. She is currently working on projects that examine male ghost figures and wartime memory, as well as the vengeance of female ghosts and nature spirits in East Asia. Before joining Korea University, she was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at the Korea Institute, Harvard University, where she pursued comparative research on East Asian ghost narratives.

Professor Kwon will deliver her lecture, When the Dead Defend the State: Spectral Loyalty in Late Chosŏn Korea on Thursday, October 30th at 4pm.

One of the most widely held assumptions about premodern Korean ghosts is that they are predominantly female. Yet beginning in the seventeenth century, in the aftermath of the Imjin War (1592–98) and the Manchu invasions (1627, 1636), male ghosts proliferated in Chosŏn. This surge marked a distinctive cultural configuration that set Chosŏn apart from its East Asian neighbors.

A notable case is the ghost of Che Mal (諸沫), a little-known militia leader of humble origins who died early in the Imjin War and was largely forgotten. In the mid-eighteenth century, however, his ghost re-emerged in a widely circulated tale that resonated deeply with contemporary politics. Situating the forgetting and re-remembering of Che Mal within the broader landscape of late Chosŏn ghost narratives, this talk explores how the male ghost became a politically powerful figure, one through whom wartime trauma could be reframed and ideals of loyalty carried forward.

The enduring force of such ghost stories lay in their ability to bridge memory and action, transforming spectral legend into lived loyalty across generations.

This event is hosted by the Center for Korean Research at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.

PLEASE NOTE: For non-Columbia guests, registration is required to access the Morningside campus 24 hours prior to the event. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 12:00 PM on Wednesday, October 29 for campus access.

Names will be submitted for QR codes 1-2 days prior to the event and subsequently reviewed. Registrants will receive an email from CU Guest Access with the QR code before or on the day of the event.