Hauntological Reflections on Yang Joon-il: Resurrection as a Spectre of 1990s Korea

This study explores hauntological culture through the twenty-first-century digital resurrection of Yang Joon-il, a noteworthy case in South Korea’s 1990s popular culture. Although Yang Joon-il's avant-garde music and style went unrecognised in the 1990s, he has been re-evaluated through digital platforms like YouTube since the late 2010s, leading to his revival as a ‘digital ghost singer’. This study sheds light on how this phenomenon goes beyond a mere retro trend to reconstruct lost futures and generate new meanings and values at the intersection of the past, present, and future. It investigates how the spectre of the 1990s influences contemporary Korean society through Yang Joon-il and how the ghost of the past provides possibilities and inspiration through ethical and political reflections in the present. Additionally, it analyzes how the cultural reconstruction of memory offered by the ghost impacts the identity and future of Korean society. The study further explores the implications of how digital archives and the active cultural practices of online users today contribute to hauntological culture by re-enacting and re-evaluating the lost futures of the past in the present.