“Mom, I want to come home”: Geographies of compound displacement, violence and longing
Name:
Final_revised_manusript_Story_ ...
Embargo:
2022-01-25
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663.7Kb
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PDF
Description:
Final Accepted Manuscript
Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTDCitation
Myadar, O., & Davidson, R. A. (2020). “Mom, I want to come home”: Geographies of compound displacement, violence and longing. Geoforum, 109, 78-85. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.01.009Journal
GEOFORUMRights
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
This article focuses on former "comfort woman" Gil Won-ok's story to explore the dialectical relationship between place and self, or what Edward Casey calls the "geographical self." Gil was one of thousands of women who were used as sex slaves by the Imperial Army of Japan at "comfort stations" during World War II. Taken from her hometown of Pyongyang when she was fourteen years old, Gil endured years of compounding violence in displacement away from her family and homeland. Today, at age 92, Gil still does not know what happened to her family as the division of Korea prevented her from returning home, extending her displacement. Despite the scale and brutal nature of this state-sponsored violence against thousands of young women and girls, geographic scholarship is critically lacking in addressing this violence. We hope to fill this gap. Theoretically, the article contributes to the broader literature on the dyad of place and self, and we do so by broadening the discussion of the geographical self to better understand the violence of displacement and longing for one's lost place. But most importantly this article would make a modest contribution of recognition to Gil's long struggle and perseverance.Note
24 month embargo; published online: 25 January 2020ISSN
0016-7185Version
Final accepted manuscriptae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.01.009