Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jul 2026

Anchoring Memory in a City of Flux: Pyoseok , Han , and Teo in Seoul’s Dispersed Memorial Landscape

Ann Meejung Kim

Abstract

Places of memory have been widely studied, yet dispersed memorials outside Western contexts remain underexplored. In South Korea—a postcolonial, postwar nation marked by rapid development—accelerated urban transformation and conflicted attitudes toward modern history complicate the commemoration of historical places. This essay examines how these challenges are overcome through pyoseok, a city-led, decentralized project of installed stone markers where material traces of the past have disappeared. Drawing on the Korean concepts of han and teo, the essay uses lived experience to argue that pyoseok invite Koreans to remember places rather than securing permanent monuments. In doing so, pyoseok both compensate for the loss of historical sites and render Seoul’s material volatility rhetorically acceptable. The study contributes to rhetorical scholarship on public memory by foregrounding a non-Western dispersed memorial practice and calling for more culturally and globally attentive analyses of memorial rhetoric.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2026-07-02
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2026.2692667
CompPile
Open Access
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