Magical Realism in Paul Yoon’s Once the Shore

Abstract

This paper aims at investigating the ways in which Paul Yoon in his first novel, Once the Shore (2009), uses magical realism to disclose historical trauma and to suggest the magical potentialities to heal the scars modern Korean history has left. First, his unique paradoxical style, combining the tragedy of the real and the romance of the magic, indicates that he searches for an ideal community based on his acute awareness of modern Korean history. Revealing the violent reality reflecting the Japanese and American authorities, Yoon intentionally portrays tragic scenes by raising them to high art; hence, he produces his typical paradox. Second, the places that reflect Yoon’s magical realism are the caves and the woods all over Jeju. In a real sense, those places serve as backdrops for the modern history of Jeju, its inhabitants traumatized by colonial authority and industrialization; they also appear as utopian realms, the magic into which the minorities can escape the violence of contemporary history. Finally, the memories of each character are reservoirs of the real and magic coexisting. The characters’ painful memories remind readers of the wretched history of modern Korea. Their fragmented recollections, reassembled through the act of storytelling, however, enable the minorities to envision a utopian community. The utopia Yoon creates is where an exclusive conception of nationality is overcome.