Abstract

This study analyses how the meanings of past historical events, such as May 18 Democratic Uprising in Gwangju, which younger generation could not experience directly, are transmitted to them using the concepts of ‘place of memory’ and ‘cultural memory’. This study assumes that the places of memory serves as a passage through which cultural memory is experienced and passed down to later generations. Employing research methods such as in-depth interview and landscape analysis, this study examines 1) the impact of places of memory on the formation of awareness and thought regarding past historical events, and 2) the elements within the places of memory that influence the formation of cultural memory. The results of this study are as follows. First, places of memory function as an effective medium and passage through which generations who could not directly experience historical events form perceptions about those events. Second, visible traces and records embedded in place of memory, the historical significance of spaces, and intersections of spaces with everyday life and the present are key factors influencing the formation and succession of cultural memory. This study contributes to academic discussion on the transmission of cultural memory via places which has not been previously explored, and provides policy implications for the future direction of creating places of memory.