Browsing by Author "Bulkeley, Quinn Lovely"

This thesis seeks to examine how identity and language are formulated, negotiated, and destabilized in Lee Yang-ji’s novellas, Yuhi (1989) and Kazukime (1983), particularly when these works are translated into a third language, English. Both stories are deeply embedded in the history of the Zainichi Korean community in Japan, and offer valuable insight into the trials and tribulations faced by Korean-Japanese, especially women, as they struggle between Japan and Korea. These translations and introduction hope to highlight the painful schisms and blurring boundaries in identity that Lee’s characters experience, whether they are Zainichi Korean, Korean, or Japanese. This project also attempts to emphasize the simultaneously mediating and limiting role that language performs in Lee’s works, where the very act of language necessitates a choice between Japanese and Korean, and Japan and Korea.