The Aesthetic Mediation of Transnational Trauma: Korean-Thai Cultural Convergence and the Epistemic Constitution of Decolonial Asian Historical Consciousness in Korakrit Arunanondchai’s Songs for Dying

Abstract

This investigation examines how Korakrit Arunanondchai’s Songs for Dying (2021) articulates transnational Asian historical consciousness through Korean-Thai cultural convergence, analyzing three dimensions: (1) transnational aesthetic strategies that reveal parallel genealogies of Cold War trauma, (2) Korean shamanic and Thai animistic traditions as sophisticated epistemological frameworks challenging Western paradigmatic assumptions, and (3) spectral temporalities enabling Asian historical subjectivity to operate according to autonomous ontological coordinates rather than Western developmental teleologies. Through transnational aesthetic strategies that juxtapose Thailand’s February 2020 pro-democracy protests with Korea’s Jeju April 3rd Incident (1948), the work reveals how shared experiences of Cold War trauma generate what this analysis terms “spectral solidarity”—forms of transnational connection emerging through parallel structures of memory suppression rather than essential cultural commonalities. This investigation employs a multidisciplinary analytical framework that synthesizes three interconnected theoretical domains—postcolonial theory, cultural studies, and contemporary art criticism—to examine how indigenous epistemological systems constitute sophisticated alternative frameworks that fundamentally challenge Western therapeutic paradigms. The analysis yields three principal theoretical contributions: first, the conceptualization of “spectral agency” as a decolonial methodology that reconstitutes collective trauma as generative memorial praxis; second, the theorization of “productive non-resolution” as a viable alternative to Western therapeutic imperatives of closure; and third, the articulation of “decentered Asian subjectivity” as a form of historical consciousness that derives coherence through the maintenance of dynamic relational networks across multiple temporal coordinates. This research contributes to postcolonial scholarship by redirecting analytical focus from reactive critiques of Western discursive hegemony toward the constructive theorization of Asian epistemological agency, thereby establishing contemporary Asian artistic practice as a privileged site for generating genuinely autonomous approaches to global modernity.

Highlights
• This study theorizes “spectral agency” as a decolonial epistemological intervention that reconstitutes collective trauma as generative memorial praxis, thereby positioning Asian temporalities as autonomous alternatives to Western developmental teleologies rather than belated approximations thereof.
• The analysis demonstrates how Korean shamanic and Thai animistic cosmologies function as sophisticated epistemological frameworks that enable “productive non-resolution” of historical violence, fundamentally disrupting Western therapeutic paradigms predicated on linear progression toward psychological closure.
• The article articulates “spectral solidarity” as an emergent mode of transnational Asian consciousness constituted through shared structures of Cold War memory suppression rather than essentialist cultural affinities, revealing how imperial fragmentation generates parallel conditions for decolonial resistance.
• The research conceptualizes “decentered Asian subjectivity” as a form of historical consciousness that derives coherence through maintaining dynamic relationality across multiple temporal coordinates rather than through approximation of Western individualist or nationalist developmental trajectories.
• The study establishes contemporary Asian artistic practice as a privileged site for generating genuinely alternative epistemological paradigms that transcend both Western theoretical hegemony and the reactive limitations inherent in conventional postcolonial discourse.