Tracing how anxieties, insecurities, and moral desire about English instilled through South Korea's neoliberal transformation led to the country's heated pursuit of English in the 1990s and 2000s, this book presents subjectivity as a theoretical and analytical perspective for studying the intersection of language and political economy.

Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Introduction The World in Pursuit of English Researching English in the Global Economy Subjectivity as a Critical Perspective on Neoliberalism English, Neoliberalism, and Subjectivity in South Korea Outline of this Book Chapter 2: Language and Subjectivity in Neoliberalism Defining Neoliberalism Theorizing Neoliberalism: Political Economy of Subjectivity Languaging Subjectivity: Methodological Notes Conclusions Chapter 3: English and Neoliberalism in South Korea Neoliberal South Korea: A Portrait of Hell Korea's Neoliberal Transformation: History, Actors, Processes Korea's English Fever and its Neoliberal Grounding Subjective Foundations of the English Fever: A Historical Perspective Conclusions Chapter 4: Language as Pure Potential: Crafting a Desire for English Who Desires English? Desire, Neoliberalism, and Language Ideology Language as Pure Potential Cosmopolitan Desire and Dreams of Self-realization Desire and the Crafting of New Subjectivities Conclusions Chapter 5: Language Learning as Technology of the Self: The Moral Grounding of English English and inequality in Neoliberalism Morality and Technologies of the Self Success Stories of English Language Learning in the Conservative Press The Successful Learner of English as a Moral Figure English Language Learning as Technology of Self Conclusions Chapter 6: The Biopolitics of Language Learning: Youth, English, and Anxiety Youth as a Valuable Resource Language Learning as Biopolitics Early English Education and Anxieties of the Future Anxieties of Early Study Abroad: Fears of Being Lost in Time Beyond Youth Conclusions Chapter 7: Deferring to the Other: English and Linguistic Insecurity Commodification and Competing Ideologies of Language Reframing Linguistic Insecurity Korean Mid-level Managers in Non-Korean Multinational Corporations Linguistic Insecurity in the Korean Managers' Discourse Coloniality and the Neoliberal Valorization of English Conclusions Chapter 8: Becoming Precarious Subjects: The Unfulfilled Promise of English Precarity as Subjective Condition Promise of English in a State of Precarity The rise and fall of TOEIC Consequences for Precarity Conclusions Chapter 9: Conclusions Rethinking English, Neoliberalism, and Subjectivity Towards a Global Account of English and Neoliberalism Subjectivity in Language and Political Economy References

"this is an accessible book that will make an excellent companion to any graduate course that seeks to encourage critical, political perspectives on English in the world" -- Katy Highet, Language in Society "In this elegantly written book, Joseph Park uses the telling case of South Korea to explore how and why English currently presents such a powerful object of investment and desire, both at the level of states, and, perhaps most importantly, for individuals. His exploration of the formation and expression of the neoliberal subjectivity in terms of which orientation to English is cast shows powerfully how productive the lens of affect is for understanding the link between material conditions, institutional processes, the value of languages and the agency of social actors."-Monica Heller, University of Toronto

Joseph Sung-Yul Park is Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore. He is the author of The Local Construction of a Global Language: Ideologies of English in South Korea and co-author of Markets of English: Linguistic Capital and Language Policy in a Globalizing World and A Reference Grammar of Wappo.

Selling point: First comprehensive account of the Korean "English fever" from the perspective of the political economy of language Selling point: Foregrounds subjectivity as a new direction for understanding language and political economy Selling point: Challenges the assumption that the global hegemony of English in neoliberalism derives from its economic value