Serk-Bae Suh, "Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea" (U Hawaii Press, 2025)

Jan 7, 2026

Serk-Bae Suh, an associate professor at UC Irvine specializing in modern Korean literature, dives deep into the anti-utilitarian themes in South Korean literature from the 70s and 80s. He discusses how literature counters the exploitative narratives of the developmental state and explores Georges Bataille's concept of sacrifice. Suh highlights the significance of Kim Hyun's literary efforts to bridge pure and engaged literature, arguing for literature's autonomy as an imaginative force. He also examines the portrayal of Jesus in poetry, linking it to the profound relevance of seemingly 'useless' literature.

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ANECDOTE

Derrida Was "Useless" — A Moment Of Awakening

Serk-Bae Suh recounts a talk where an Israeli officer called Derrida "useless," which sparked his rethink about utility.
That moment led Suh to consider uselessness as a form of resistance and to study Kim Hyun's anti-utilitarian literary ideas.

INSIGHT

Uselessness As Literary Relevance

Kim Hyun sought to overcome the split between 'pure' and 'engaged' literature by valuing literature's uselessness.
He argued literature's autonomy and aesthetic effect can make it socially relevant without serving political ends.

INSIGHT

Developmentalism Tied Individual Sacrifice To Utility

Park Chung-hee's Our Nation's Path aligns individual frugality and sacrifice with national economic development.
The regime prioritized utility, reducing human life to material success and legitimizing instrumental sacrifice.

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Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea (University of Hawaii Press, 2025) explores literary texts that countered the prevailing rhetoric of South Korea’s exploitative developmental state. These texts capture moments of anti-utilitarian sacrifice, and include Kim Hyŏn’s critical essays, Pak Sangnyung’s monumental novel A Study of Death (1975), and Ko Chŏnghǔi’s poems about the Passion of Jesus.

In Against the Chains of Utility, Serk-Bae Suh challenges the notion of utilitarian sacrifice, which continues to pervade every aspect of Korean society. He argues that any act of sacrifice for a higher cause is inherently utilitarian, regardless of whether its motives are morally sound or questionable. Such sacrifices establish a circuit of exchange, where sacrifice is valued solely based on its ability to achieve an end. To counter this instrumentalization, anti-utilitarian sacrifice must exist as a means without an end. Suh posits that literature’s relevance to society lies in this seemingly nihilistic sacrifice, viewing literature not as a proxy for politics but as the art of imagination in language.

Dr. Serk-Bae Suh is an associate professor in East Asian Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He primarily studies modern Korean literature, and the underlying concern that guides his research issues from the inescapable human condition of being with others. He is also the author of Treacherous Translation: Culture, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Korea and Japan from the 1910s to the 1960s. View his university profile at https://www.faculty.uci.edu/pr....

Buy Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea:

https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/tit...

About the host: Leslie Hickman is an Anthropology graduate student at Emory University. She has an MA in Korean Studies and a KO-EN translation certificate from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. You can contact her at leslie.hickman@emory.edu

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