This article explores the relationship between South Korean national identity and the country’s patriotic landscape. It attempts to decipher the images and the codes that museums, memorial halls, and monuments transmit to the local audience in order to establish a sense of spatial and temporal sameness and unity among the members of the nation. The analytic tool which is employed for that purpose is the distinction between “mythology” and “memory,” which makes it possible to avoid the commonly metaphorical use of the latter term. The framework of the analysis is presented in the form of a historical survey of the interaction between governing mythology, i.e. the dominant narrative preferred and advanced by the state, and collective and personal memories in South Korea. This underscores the fact that the present-day natural image of a landscape, which is dominated by images of the colonial past, is actually a late development. Only in the 1980s, when new socio-political conditions allowed for governing mythology and memory to converge and place the colonial past at the forefront of national identity, was this demonstrated by a wave of constructing memorial sites for the colonial past. In this context, it is possible to analyze which images are transmitted and how, and why specifically those images are important. Both external and internal challenges have influenced the decision to base governing colonial mythology on the role of South Korea as the legitimate son, who is responsible for the commemoration of deceased patriots, by relying on a set of familiar cultural and religious images. A highly passionate patriotic language that echoes early twentieth-century rhetoric, not only assists in strengthening the connection between the post-colonial South and pre-divided Korea, but it also mirrors the ongoing concern for the stability of the country. Also, the patriotic landscape sanctifies the death of the patriots, though death as a value is not sanctified. This demonstrates the way through which the concept of patriotism, which forms the emotional linchpin of nationalism, is tied to the idea of civic consciousness and the fulfillment of daily national obligations.
목차
INTRODUCTION THE TANGIBLE CONSTRUCTION OF COLONIAL MYTHOLOGY IN SOUTH KOREA: A BRIEF HISTORY IMAGES OF THE LANGUAGE OF PATRIOTISM2 COMPLEX FLAG THE PATRIOTS KOREA’S JOAN OF ARC BY GUN AND BOMBS COMPLICATED NATIONALISTS CONCLUSION REFERENCES
키워드
Korean national identitygoverning mythologymemorypatriotismcommemorative landscape
저자
GUY PODOLER [ eaches at the Department of East Asian Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem ]
한국연구원은 1970년 5월 한국 민속의 각 분야에 걸친 자료의 수집과 학술적 연구를 목적으로 '한국민속연구소'로 출발하였다. 그 후 1973년 5월 연구 분야를 확대하며 민속뿐만 아니라 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 위해 '한국학연구소'로 개편하였고, 다시 1989년 3월 한국의 국제적 위상의 부상과 함께 한국학 연구의 중요성이 높아짐에 따라 '한국학연구원'으로 확대, 개편하였다. 한국학연구원은 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 통해 지역과 민족문화 발전에 기여하며 한국학의 세계화를 위해서 학술활동을 강화하고 나아가 내·외국인에 대한 한국문화 교육을 담당하고자 한다.