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In the 1980s, noraep’ae [song clubs] operated as hubs for creating, performing, and disseminating some of the most popular protest songs against the military authoritarian regimes in South Korea. During college campus rallies, labor strikes, and public protests on the streets, songs written and performed by noraep’ae became instrumental in fostering solidarity across regional and class divides. This talk examines the evolution of noraep’ae and their significance in the South Korean song movement, analyzing in turn how singing enables a politics of participation and democratization of the voice.

Susan Hwang is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Korean Literature and Cultural Studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University. Her scholarship engages with the cultural practices of resistance and dissent in South Korea, as well as theories of translation and world literature. She is currently working on her book manuscript entitled “Uncaged Songs: Culture and Politics of Protest Music in South Korea." It is a cultural history of South Korea’s song movement that charts how songs became a powerful component of the struggle for democracy in South Korea during two of the nation’s darkest decades—the 1970s and the 1980s.