Democracy and Political Subjectivization

Abstract

South Korea has seen a successful consolidation of democracy ever since its democratization in the late 1980s. However, the impact of democracy in terms of equality has been skewed, especially lacking in the field of womens rights and gender equality. This thesis focuses on the two prominent events in the recent years that have shifted the direction of gender discourse in the Korean politics—the Gangnam Station Femicide case of 2016 and the Me Too movement of 2018—reinterpreting their importance through the political philosophy of Jacques Rancière. The reading of recent events as a process of political subjectivization of women allows interpreting the current conflicts in Korea not as a threat but an opportunity for greater equality and democracy. However, the prospect is not all optimistic as the unfolding of womens subjectivization severely relies on the mechanisms of consensus democracy as a way of resolving the wrong.