Nostalgia and the spectacle of fireflies: constructing nonhuman charisma in South Korea

This study examines how nonhuman charisma is culturally, historically, and economically constructed through the case of fireflies in South Korea. While conservation scholarship often treats charisma as an inherent quality of species, this study demonstrates that firefly charisma emerged through historically embedded nostalgia and was later intensified by commodification and spectacularization within affective economies. Drawing on archival sources, folklore, media reports, interviews with activists and breeders, and analyses of firefly exhibitions and festivals, the study traces how fireflies transformed from abundant creatures in agrarian landscapes into nostalgic symbols of purity and childhood innocence during South Korea’s postwar modernization. This nostalgic attachment was strategically mobilized in a forest-conservation campaign, where fireflies proved more emotionally compelling than legally protected species. Advances in mass-rearing technologies enabled zoos and municipalities to stage spectacular displays, turning bioluminescence into a commodified and reproducible attraction. These developments illustrate how firefly charisma is filtered, amplified, and spectacularized within cultural and economic circuits, producing lively commodities aligned with broader affective economies. The analysis highlights the contingent and orchestrated nature of nonhuman charisma, showing how affective investments in nonhumans are entangled with historical trajectories, technological interventions, and cultural imaginaries.