Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici

Prof Joseph Sung-Yul Park (National University of Singapore)
Organiser: Marco Santello (University of Turin)

This talk considers subjectivity – dimensions of affect, morality, and desire that characterize people’s lives as agents in social context – as a key element for understanding and contesting English as a global language. Using English in Korea as an example, particularly the heated pursuit of English in South Korea during the two decades since the mid-1990s, it discusses how the global spread of English is mediated by the formation of colonial and neoliberal subjectivities, and how such a perspective can help postcolonial subjects imagine and enact alternative relationships with English.