A Visualization of the Emotions of Justice

The goal of this project is to visually recreate the stories in the form of a comic strip from Jisoo Kim’s research in Chapter Five of her book the Emotions of Justice. Throughout this chapter, Kim includes stories of individuals who petitioned on behalf of their family members to highlight the way they shaped the Chosŏn legal system. Through the use of illustrations, I hope to provide the reader with a visual representation of these accounts that reflects the emotions and feelings of those challenging unjust treatment.

In Chosŏn Korea, legal practices were heavily influenced by wŏn, a term encompassing emotions like grief, hatred, anger, and suffering. The state believed that letting the wŏn of individuals fester would threaten social order and harmony. The legal system therefore became a means to relieve the wŏn of the people. Individuals of all social backgrounds (elite/commoner/slave) utilized the legal system through both verbal and written petitions to seek justice. While the idea of justice during the Chosŏn period was defined by the state, the people also played an important role in challenging that definition (Kim 12)

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