• Title/Summary/Keyword: Politics of memory

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Transnational Migration of Memory and Politics of Immigrant Community: The Case of Comfort Women Memorials in the U.S. (기억의 초국적 이동과 이민자 집단의 정치: 미국 위안부 소녀상을 사례로)

  • Yoon, Jihwan
    • Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.393-408
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    • 2018
  • This study aims to raise our understanding of how memory of a social group is transnationally appropriated and utilized by other subjects. A collective sense of justice for comfort women has been handed to many Koreans either in Korea or in overseas countries since the early 1990s. In the U.S., the first comfort women monument was established in Palisades Park, New Jersey by Korean-Americans and local politicians as they wanted to strengthen the common sense of Korean ethnicity with the symbolic power of the memoryscape. Exploring the diffusion of comfort women memorials in the U.S., this study examines the complexity and multilayered structure of memory politics and its transnational mobility, which are connected to Korean-Americans' struggle for belonging.

Cultural Politics and Social Construction of Cultural Tourist Destinations: Reinterpretation, Institutionalization and Recognition of Otaru in Japan (문화관광지의 문화정치와 정체성의 사회적 구성 -일본 훗카이도 오타루의 재해석, 제도화, 재인식-)

  • Cho, A-Ra
    • Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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    • v.44 no.3
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    • pp.240-259
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    • 2009
  • This study aimed to reveal that a local city was recreated by tourism, and to discover a general process in which the regional identity as a tourist destination was reconstructed. Specifically, firstly, this study suggested that the social construction of cultural tourist destinations was composed of a series of dynamic stages such as 'reinterpretation', 'institutionalization', and 'recognition' conceptually. Secondly, the dynamic stages were analyzed on the ethnographic study of Otaru where the movement of preservation of the historical canal was raised and strategies to attract tourism had been implemented. Thirdly, a main mechanism acting on each stage was examined. In conclusion, it was shown that the region was reinterpreted through the politics of identity and the meaning was institutionalized through political and economic negotiation. Moreover, while being established as a constructed authenticity by politics of memory, the regional identity was embedded in the socio-spatial consciousness constantly.

Gendered Politics of Memory and Power: Making Sense of Japan's Peace Constitution and the Comfort Women in East Asian International Relations (記憶とパワーのジェンダーポリティックス: 東アジアの国際関係において日本の平和憲法と慰安部問題の意味づけ)

  • Kim, Taeju;Lee, Hongchun
    • Analyses & Alternatives
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    • v.4 no.2
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    • pp.163-202
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    • 2020
  • This paper examines how Japanese society produced and reproduced a distinctively gendered history and memories of the experience of WWII and colonialism in the postwar era. We argue that these gendered narratives, which were embedded in postwar debates about the Peace Constitution and comfort women, have engendered contradictions and made the historical conflicts with neighboring countries challenging to resolve. On the one hand, this deepens conflict, but on the other, it also generates stability in East Asia. After Japan's defeat in WWII, the American Occupation government created the Peace Constitution, which permanently "renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes." The removal of the state's monopoly on violence - the symbol of masculinity - resulted in Japan's feminization. This feminization led to collective forgetting of prewar imperialism and militarism in postwar Japan. While collectively forgetting the wartime history of comfort women within these feminized narratives, the conservative movement to revise the Peace Constitution attempted to recover Japan's masculinity for a new, autonomous role in international politics, as uncertainty in East Asia increased. Ironically, however, this effort strengthened Japan's femininity because it involved forgetting Japan's masculine role in the past. This forgetting has undermined efforts to achieve masculine independence, thus reinforcing dependence on the United States. Recurrent debates about the Peace Constitution and comfort women have influenced how Japanese political elites and intellectual society have constructed distinctive social institutions, imagined foreign relations, and framed contemporary problems, as indicated in their gendered restructuring of history.

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True History of the Kelly Gang and the Politics of Memory (『켈리 일당의 실화』와 기억의 정치학)

  • Rhee, Suk Koo
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.55 no.2
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    • pp.337-357
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    • 2009
  • Ned Kelly, the bushranger, is a legendary figure of special significance to the Australians of today. The Aussies' affection for this "horse thief" derives from the fact that the latter has become a national ideal of the "battler" who does not give up in the face of hardships. Peter Carey's is considered to be one of the "national narratives" that not only heroize but also give voice to the Irish rebels who fought for "fair go" in the colonial Australia. However, this paper asserts that there are more to the novel than merely paying a tribute to the national icon, especially when the novel is examined in the context of the "republic controversy." In 1999, the preceding year of the novel's publication, Australia had a national referendum on the issue of whether or not to secede from the Commonwealth. Due to the procedural manipulation of the royalist ruling party, republicanism was voted down. At the time when the majority of Australians were irate with the result of the referendum, Carey's retelling of the supposedly anti-British rebel failed to promote the lost cause. This paper investigates how the narrativization of the legendary figure, whose anti-British and anti-authoritarian attitude can be easily translated into the cause of republicanism, came to appeal to the general reading public. In so doing, this paper compares Carey's novel with the historical Kelly's two epistles: Jerilderie and Cameron Letter. This comparison brings to light what is left out in the process of Carey's narrativization of the rebel's life: the subversive militant voice of an Irish nationalist. The conclusion of this paper is that the possibility for Kelly's life to surface again in the 21st century as a sort of counter-memory is contained by Carey through its inclusion in a highly personalized domestic narrative.

Place Memories of the Urban Backlane: In case of the Pimat-gol of Jongno, Seoul (도시 뒷골목의'장소 기억' -종로 피맛골의 사례-)

  • Jeon, Jong-Han
    • Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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    • v.44 no.6
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    • pp.779-796
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    • 2009
  • Pimat-gil is a bystreet over 600-years old of Jong-no in Seoul that originated in the early Joseon Dynasty. This Study defines Pimat-gol (a street village) that has developed centering around Pimat-gil (alley) as a typical backlane of modern city, traces the origin and landscapes of Pimat-gol through the historical geographies of this place, and tries to name and interpret the placeness of Pimat-gol from the angles of social and cultural geography, particularly on the basis of the concept 'place memory'. As a result, the author extracts the placeness of Pimat-gol in terms of juxtaposition of three-fold layers, ie., 'space of subaltern vs. space of escape', 'space of oblivion vs. space of recollecttion and generation', and 'space of fossil vs. space of living'. In addition, the author examines the place memories which have been sedimented in this place and the contest of the place-memories by investigating these three-fold layers, and makes a proposal which would constructs another spatiality of modern city on the basis of this case.

Deterritorialization of Memory in Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman (아리엘 도르프만의 『죽음과 소녀』에 나타난 기억의 탈영토화)

  • Kim, Chan-Gi;Hwang, Su-Hyeon
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.46
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    • pp.199-225
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    • 2017
  • Death and the Maiden(1990), by the Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman, directly addresses the issue of liquidating the past that the transient democratic government of Patricio Aylwin faced, the government established right after the end of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. This article focuses on analyzing the aspects of conflicts and discords between memories of individuals as reflected in the conversations between characters of the play. For example. we look into the effects of traumatic memories of Paulina, tortured and raped by the past government, on her everyday life and examine the relationship between her personal memory and the collective memory. We also look into the discourse of the dominating memory through the confession of the rapist doctor Roberto, and observe how Gerardo, a lawyer appointed as a member of the investigation committee, exposes the truth of the case and mediates the conflict of the memories between the two characters. We uncover the problems inherent in the state memory as it tries to intervene in the strife in memories between assailants and victims and explore the possibility that the concept of memory deterritorialization would be an alternative to overcome these problems.

The Stakeholder Interview of Participatory Digital Archives for Social Memory (사회적 기억을 위한 참여형 디지털 아카이브 이해관계자 면담 연구)

  • Park, Jinkyung;Kim, You-seung
    • The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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    • no.54
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    • pp.249-287
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    • 2017
  • This study discusses the theoretical analysis of the concept of social memory and participatory digital archives, and argues the various problems of participatory digital archives based on the analysis of individual experiences and perceptions through interviews with stakeholders including users and operators. As a theoretical study, it analyzes related precedent studies and explores the complementary concepts of social memory and participatory digital archives. Based on the discussion, the study understands social memory as a defined and generated memory through the interaction of the social environment encompassing politics, socio-culture and the internal relations of the community. Furthermore, it understands the participatory digital archive as a digital space in which the community, the voluntary participation of users, and the support of professional groups intertwine. The memories and records of this interaction are then stored, preserved, shared, spread, and reproduced. Through stakeholder interviews, the study analyzes the perceptions of users and operators regarding participation, policy, and service, and identified the various problems with participatory digital archives.

The Official Memory of Korean War and the War Memorial (한국전쟁의 공식기억과 전쟁기념관)

  • Kim, Hyung-Gon
    • Korean journal of communication and information
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    • v.40
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    • pp.192-220
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    • 2007
  • This study explored the official memory of Korean War through the War Memorial. The object of this study was the War Memorial in Yong-san, Seoul. This study investigated the politics of how the War Memorial would appear and the official memory of what the War Memorial would communicate. In the process of foundation of the War Memorial one-sided decision was made by the President and the Army. The aim of the War Memorial is to educate next generation. Anti-communism is the most important ground for value judgement of exhibition. In this sense, the War Memorial concretize particular interpretations on Korean War. This is the official memory of Korean War made by the War Memorial.

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Musicals and Memories of the March 1 Independence Movement - Centered on the musical Shingheung Military School, Ku: Songs of the Goblin, Watch (기념 뮤지컬과 독립운동의 기억 -<신흥무관학교>, <구>, <워치>를 중심으로)

  • Chung, Myung-mun
    • (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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    • no.43
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    • pp.229-261
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    • 2021
  • On the musical stage in 2019, there were many works depicting the Japanese colonial period. This is due to 2019 the timeliness of the March 1st Movement and the centennial of the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. The way of remembering and commemorating historical facts reflects the power relationship between memory subjects and the time, namely the politics of memory. Until now, stage dramas dealing with the era of Japanese rule have focused on the commemoration of modern national and national defense, including feelings of misfortune and respect for patriots. This study analyzed the metaphor of the memorials emphasized to the audience in the commemorative musicals Shingheung Military School, Ku: Songs of the Goblin, and Watch which were performed in 2019, and looked at how to adjust memories and memorials. The above works highlight the narratives of ordinary people as well as those recorded against the backdrop of the Manchurian Independence Movement and Hongkou Park, expanding the object of the commemoration. Through this, active armed resistance efforts, self-reflection and reflection were highlighted. The case of Shingheung Military School revealed the earnestness of ordinary people who led the independence movement through the movement of central figures. Ku: Songs of the Goblin revises memories by reproducing forgotten objects and apologizing through time slip. Watch has strengthened the spectacles of facilities through documentary techniques such as photography, news reels, and newspaper articles, but it also reveals limitations limited to records. In the 3.1 Movement and the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, devices that actively reveal that the "people's movement" is connected to the present. To this end, the official records reflected the newly produced values and memories and devoted themselves to the daily lives and emotions of the crowd. In addition, both empirical consideration and calligraphy were utilized to increase reliability. These attempts are meaningful in that they have achieved the achievement of forming contemporary empathy.

W. H. Auden's Poetics and the Political (W. H. 오든의 시학과 정치성)

  • Hwang, Joon Ho
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.55 no.2
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    • pp.315-335
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    • 2009
  • Controversies over W. H. Auden's "political" poetry remind us of an old but perhaps never easily resolved problem about the relationship between poetry (literature) and politics. Auden has arguably been referred to as a "leftist" or "Marxist" because of his political viewpoint registered in "Spain" or "September 1, 1939," which embodies his contemporaries' loss and fear, brought by the socio-political turmoil, economic depression, and moral conflicts of the 1930s. Interestingly, however, Auden is known to have an ambivalent position toward the political reality. He once disavowed the above "political" poems as "dishonest" in the preface of the 1966 edition of Collected Poems and declared, "poetry makes nothing happen" in "In Memory of W. B. Yeats," which seemingly acknowledges the political incapacity of poetry. Auden's position and poetry should be understood as the result of complicated interactions between his perspectives on society, human beings, and poetics. Auden definitely believed in the role of poetry in such a politically demanding time, yet was not concerned with the anticipation of certain immediate changes effected by poetry in real situations. Instead, he sought the intellectual and moral effects that poetry could give his readers to help them survive the dismal circumstances of the 1930s. This is what distinguished Auden's poetry from political propaganda. In doing so, Auden's poetry captures the zeitgeist of his generation and has privileged him as the leading voice of his time, but it has also encouraged the following generations to confront different socio-political difficulties. This is something poetry can make happen politically, and the survival of Auden's "memorable speech" proves the legitimacy of his frequently misunderstood poetics.