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Mr. Seo
The professor, later revealed to be named Yoon, is working on an oral history of the Gwangju uprising (what he calls a “psychological autopsy”). The professor is slowly interviewing all the surviving student protestors, though he often meets resistance from those most traumatized, like Seon-ju. Though some survivors decide that bearing “witness” to the 5:18 massacre should be the priority, others—specifically the narrator—continue to distrust the professor even after they share testimony with him.
The Professor/Yoon Quotes in Human Acts
The Human Acts quotes below are all either spoken by The Professor/Yoon or refer to The Professor/Yoon. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4: The Prisoner, 1990 Quotes
I heard a story about one of the Korean army platoons that fought in Vietnam. How they forced the women, children, and elderly of one particular village into the main hall, and then burned it to the ground. Some of those who claim to slaughter us did so with the memory of those previous times, when committing such actions and wartime had won them a handsome reward. It happened in Gwangju just as it did on Jeju Island, […] in Bosnia, and all across the American continent when it was still known as the new world, with such a uniform brutality it's as though it is imprinted in our genetic code. I never let myself forget that every single person I meet is a member of this human race.
[…] So tell me, professor, what answers do you have for me? You, a human being just like me.
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Chapter 5: The Factory Girl, 2002 Quotes
The repeated words from Yoon’s e-mail, a pianist hammering the same keys, flicker in your mind’s eye like a cursor blinking on a computer screen. Testimony. Meaning. Memory. For the future.
[…] Again, you experienced that moment when the contours of suffering coalesce into clarity, a clarity colder and harder than any nightmare could ever be. The moment when you are forced to acknowledge that what you experienced was no mere dream.
[…] Yoon has asked you to remember. To face up to those memories, to bear witness to them. But how can such a thing be possible?
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Some weekend afternoon when the sun-drenched scene outside the window seems unusually still and Dong-ho’s profile flips into your mind, mightn’t the thing flickering in front of your eyes be what they call a soul? In the early hours of the morning, when dreams you can’t remember have left your cheeks wet and the contours of that face jolt into an abrupt clarity, mightn’t that wavering be a soul’s emergence? And the place they emerged from, that they waver back into, would it be as black as night or dusk's coarse weave? Dong-ho, Jin-su, the bodies at your own hands washed and dressed, might they be gathered there in that place, or are they sundered, several, scattered? You are aware that, as an individual, you have the capacity for neither bravery nor strength.
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The Professor/Yoon Character Timeline in Human Acts
The timeline below shows where the character The Professor/Yoon appears in Human Acts. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: The Prisoner, 1990
A university professor is interviewing an unnamed narrator. The narrator recalls being tortured with a black Monami Biro,...
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...Now, Jin-su has recently died, having taken his own life. As the narrator speaks with the professor , he wonders why he was able to survive while Jin-su was not.
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The narrator becomes frustrated, wondering why the professor would want to dredge up all his most painful memories with this interview. Besides, Jin-su’s...
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In the present, the narrator tells the professor that every time he sweats in summer, he remembers how he felt in this era...
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...dead in a straight line. Now, in the story’s present, the narrator is livid that the professor is asking him about these things, even if it is for the purpose of his...
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...every member of the human race is capable of such cruelty—including people like himself and the professor . Every day, the narrator looks at the scar on his hand from the pen....
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Chapter 5: The Factory Girl, 2002
...labor rights organization. Ten years ago, however, she got a call from a man named Yoon. Yoon was hoping to do a “psychological autopsy” on Seon-ju’s old student militia unit, and...
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At first, Seon-ju declined. But after talking to Yoon more recently, she learned that seven of the ten surviving members of the militia had...
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...Seon-ju works all day categorizing and transcribing various audio and video recordings, the cassette tapes Yoon has sent her to record on still feel overwhelming. Seon-ju’s work focuses on environmental disasters,...
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...turns around, planning to stay in the office so she can record the tapes for Yoon. Seon-ju has recently learned from the newspapers that Seong-hee is in the hospital. She calls...
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Seon-ju once felt proud that she was able to repress her memories—she was angry with Yoon for wanting to dig up her recollections of the past. In fact, her entire falling-out...
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...hospital waiting room, Seon-ju falls into a restless sleep. She dreams of the phrases from Yoon’s emails: “testimony. Meaning. Memory. For the future.” Seon-ju knows Yoon wants her to “bear witness”...
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