Hidden Heroes offers a rare and intimate glimpse into the lives of ordinary North Koreans through a collection of short stories by renowned DPRK authors. Spanning from the 1980s to the present, these works explore the theme of the hidden hero, a popular moniker in the DPRK to describe the average citizen who navigates the complexities of daily life with quiet dedication for their work and country.
The anthology is divided into three thematic sections--Identities, Communities, and Power--showcasing a diverse array of characters and settings. Readers will encounter factory managers juggling work and family responsibilities, neighbors bonding during friendly outings, university deans resisting corruption, and diasporic Koreans in Japan grappling with questions of belonging. Through these relatable human experiences, the stories challenge simplistic notions of North Korean society and reveal a more nuanced reality.
While elements of propaganda and state ideology are present, as is typical in all officially sanctioned DPRK literature, the focus in the text is rather on the personal struggles, relationships, and aspirations of the characters. By highlighting these universal themes, Hidden Heroes invites readers to look beyond geopolitical tensions and connect with the shared humanity of North Koreans. For anyone seeking to expand their understanding of this often-misunderstood country, this anthology provides an engaging and thought-provoking literary journey into the everyday lives of North Korean citizens.

Everything for the people, everything according to the people! --Kim Jong Un

Under Kim Jong Un, North Korea has undertaken significant efforts to elevate the standard of living for its citizens. This shift has led to notable advancements in production and the quality of visual media, teaching North Koreans the language of consumerism and new methods of consumption. In Rebranding North Korea, Immanuel Kim delves into the implications of a thoroughly modernized North Korea for its citizens and the world as the country strives to participate in global modernity and technological advancements.

Kim traces two parallel trajectories illustrating the most significant changes in North Korean consumer culture: the expansion of modern urban development projects and increased social amenities, alongside the technologically advanced aesthetic qualities of visual media. These changes reveal the transition from the politics-centric society of the Kim Jong Il regime to the consumer-centric one under Kim Jong Un. The country's revamping of visual culture--as seen in the move from celluloid to digital formats, improved filmmaking techniques, advanced editing, drone usage, and artistic photographic renditions, coupled with an emphasis on digital literacy--highlights North Korea's attempts to educate itself and rebrand the DPRK. Its revamped cityscapes, gentrified living conditions, fashionable consumer goods, and transformed film and television industries signal a strong and stable economy where citizens are not just getting by but actively customizing their consumerist lifestyles according to the images portrayed in visual media.

North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is firmly fixed in the Western imagination as a barbaric vestige of the Cold War, a rogue nation that refuses to abide by international norms. It is seen as belligerent and oppressive, a poor nation bent on depriving its citizens of their basic human rights and expanding its nuclear weapons program at the expense of a faltering economy. Even the North's literary output is stigmatized and dismissed as mere propaganda literature praising the Great Leader.

Immanuel Kim's book confronts these stereotypes, offering a more complex portrayal of literature in the North based on writings from the 1960s to the present. The state, seeking to write revolution, prescribes grand narratives populated with characters motivated by their political commitments to the leader, the Party, the nation, and the collective. While acknowledging these qualities, Kim argues for deeper readings. In some novels and stories, he finds, the path to becoming a revolutionary hero or heroine is no longer a simple matter of formulaic plot progression; instead it is challenged, disrupted, and questioned by individual desires, decisions, doubts, and imaginations. Fiction in the 1980s in particular exhibits refreshing story lines and deeper character development along with creative approaches to delineating women, sexuality, and the family. These changes are so striking that they have ushered in what Kim calls a Golden Age of North Korean fiction.

Rewriting Revolution charts the insightful literary frontiers that critically portray individuals negotiating their political and sexual identities in a revolutionary state. In this fresh and thought-provoking analysis of North Korean fiction, Kim looks past the ostensible state propaganda to explore the dynamic literary world where individuals with human emotions reside. His book fills a major lacuna and will be of interest to literary scholars and historians of East Asia, as well as to scholars of global and comparative studies in socialist countries.

North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is firmly fixed in the Western imagination as a barbaric vestige of the Cold War, a rogue nation that refuses to abide by international norms. It is seen as belligerent and oppressive, a poor nation bent on depriving its citizens of their basic human rights and expanding its nuclear weapons program at the expense of a faltering economy. Even the North's literary output is stigmatized and dismissed as mere propaganda literature praising the Great Leader.

Immanuel Kim's book confronts these stereotypes, offering a more complex portrayal of literature in the North based on writings from the 1960s to the present. The state, seeking to write revolution, prescribes grand narratives populated with characters motivated by their political commitments to the leader, the Party, the nation, and the collective. While acknowledging these qualities, Kim argues for deeper readings. In some novels and stories, he finds, the path to becoming a revolutionary hero or heroine is no longer a simple matter of formulaic plot progression; instead it is challenged, disrupted, and questioned by individual desires, decisions, doubts, and imaginations. Fiction in the 1980s in particular exhibits refreshing story lines and deeper character development along with creative approaches to delineating women, sexuality, and the family. These changes are so striking that they have ushered in what Kim calls a Golden Age of North Korean fiction.

Rewriting Revolution charts the insightful literary frontiers that critically portray individuals negotiating their political and sexual identities in a revolutionary state. In this fresh and thought-provoking analysis of North Korean fiction, Kim looks past the ostensible state propaganda to explore the dynamic literary world where individuals with human emotions reside. His book fills a major lacuna and will be of interest to literary scholars and historians of East Asia, as well as to scholars of global and comparative studies in socialist countries.