Writing Unspeakable Things: Speechlessness, Abjection, and the Ethics/Aesthetics of (Not) Representing Sexual Violence in Three Korean American "Comfort Women" Novels

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This article analyzes "comfort women" novels by the Korean American authors Therese Park, Nora Okja Keller, and Chang-rae Lee in terms of the ethics and aesthetics of representing sexual violence through language. I specifically look at these authors' stylistic strategies to describe rape in writing and how they (more or less successfully) avoid voyeuristic portrayals of the "comfort women" by controlling the narrative point of view and relying on traumatic "speechlessness" and abjection. Building on relevant notions from the fields of photography, cinematography, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, this analysis suggests that in-progress representations of rape in language become a futile project if the intention is to avoid ethically problematic images. Rather than reobjectify the "comfort women" depicted, the three writers under analysis find creative ways to occlude potentially exploitative accounts of sexual violence and bring prominence to their stories.