• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.433-452
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• 2013

Bonjeong-tong(本町通) which was originated from Japanese place name and commercial center during Japanese colonial period speaks for downtown in the urban Korea of today. This study tries to investigate a variety of place memories that have been layered in Bonjeong-tong in the case of Chungmu-ro and Myeongdong area in Seoul, Korea. The author settles the concept of 'place memory' from the viewpoint of the discipline of human geography, and reconstructs place memories of Bonjeong-tong by three folds of layers focusing on the multilayeredness and the contestedness of place memories which have been piled up in Bonjeong-tong; 'the symbol of colonial power' vs. 'the emblem of modernization', 'the heart of monetary capitalism' vs. 'the ground of humanists and artists', 'the space of fashion' vs. 'the place of identity'. As a result, the author places emphasis on that a place like Bonjeong-tong in itself within a city is a sort of palimpsest, and suggests that therefore it is necessary to adopt a vertical approach not a horizontal one for the study on urban space in future.