- P-ISSN0023-3900
- E-ISSN2733-9343
- A&HCI, SCOPUS, KCI
Vol.64 No.4
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This article analyzes changes in the conception of Korea’s minjung history and the development of nationalist historiography, minjung-centered nationalist historiography, and minjung historiography. Although the term minjung traditionally referred to the ruled class in Korea, in the early modernization period the concept shifted to refer to agents of national liberation and resistance. After the 1960s, the minjung was reilluminated as the subject of anti-Japanese nationalism and the democratization movement, and in the 1970s, the concept of minjung spread to various academic fields. This view of the minjung as a collective subject of resistance countered previous nationalist historiography and proposed new minjung-centered historical narratives. The mid-1980s saw the full emergence of minjung historiography. But along with the decline of the minjung movement from the mid-1990s, in tandem with the collapse of the Soviet Union and socialism in Eastern Europe, minjung historiography too began to decline. The previous standpoint that saw the minjung as subjects of revolutionary change began to be criticized. New minjung historiography of recent years does not regard the minjung as a fixed subject but as a fluid existence with diverse voices. Here, the core task is to reconstruct in a pluralistic way the traditional concept of minjung that has been dismantled in the process of rapid social change, and to rewrite their everyday lives and experiences and their history of solidarity and tolerance.
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This article examines research on the Donghak Peasant War based on the theory of subjects of revolutionary change—which found active application from the 1980s to the mid-to-late 1990s—by focusing on the view of history. Research along these lines defines the minjung, which has properties of being class-coalitional, as the subject of revolutionary change that takes on both national and class contradictions. This contrasts with how the minjung, to include peasant farmers, were understood in Marxist views as requiring guidance by the more advanced classes, or other studies that follow modernization theory. However, research on the Donghak Peasant War based on the theory of subjects of revolutionary change has to date been limited to a binary view of time that divides modern from premodern, and to a binary view of space that separates the interior and exterior of a nation-state. It is difficult to adequately respond to the newly rising tasks born from modern civilization and the acceleration of globalization, to include the climate crisis, environmental problems, inequality, and discrimination, from such a Eurocentric and modernocentric perspective and a unilinear view of historical development.
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In minjung history, the worker was the protagonist of the anti-imperialistic struggle for national liberation and the leader of revolutionary change in the capitalistic system of South Korea. As such, the proletariat were important subjects in minjung historiography, which sought to overcome the colonial and divisional view of history. Similar to how the intense minjung movement during produced the study of minjung history from the 1980s to the 2000s, the importance of the history of the labor movement has continued to influence and be influenced by the site of labor on the ground and by research into the labor movement. In this article, I first examine the context and major characteristics of research on the South Korean labor movement from the 1980s to early 1990s. Next, I examine how, from the late 1990s, research on labor history expanded as research on minjung history declined. Finally, I explore how the history of the labor movement shifted to a history of labor, as well as the characteristics and limitations of studies of labor history. Finally, I propose accepting the critical inquiries and research achievements of the new minjung history and the field of minority history in order to continue the praxis-oriented nature of research on labor history.
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With the decline of research on minjung history, the argument for a new minjung history that would critically inherit it was proposed. This new minjung history, it was emphasized, should break free from the representation of minjung that centered class or nation and focus on the multivocality of the minjung. This article examines research trends in disability history and explores the relationship between disability history, minjung history, and new minjung history. The discourse on minjung during the 1970s grasped the disabled as part of the marginalized minjung, but this was more as a way of recruiting their bodies at a symbolic level to represent the oppressed and marginalized minjung than any serious contemplation of the structures of discrimination against disabled persons. In the narratives of the minjung movement, which picked up steam in the 1980s, the emphasis on the productivity and subjectivity of the proletariat made it difficult for the disabled, whose bodies were unsuitable for production and struggle, to become visible. Despite this, disabled persons were inspired by the minjung movement and appropriated or parted with the concept of minjung in their own ways in the disability movement from the mid-1980s. This study traces this process, examines how disability history resonates with new minjung history, and proposes that new minjung history approach the minjung as affect instead of a substantial actuality in its encounter with minority history.
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This article reexamines the history of placing people with mental disabilities in carceral facilities in South Korea from a feminist disability studies perspective. The large-scale institutionalization that took place during the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan (1980–1987) has typically been analyzed as a product of the government’s violent attempt at social control and the economic interests of private welfare institutions that cooperated with the government. This article uses the concept of a shadow carceral state to rethink how people with mental disabilities were institutionalized in South Korea in the 1980s, and argues that during the period of democratization, the framing of institutional reform as based on liberal human rights and identity condoned unjust and unequal structures that continue to produce abnormal populations that are housed in institutions.
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The present article explores Dasan Jeong Yakyong’s conceptualization of humaneness (仁) within his philosophical framework, focusing on the multilayered structure of the concept as revealed in his commentaries in Noneo gogeumju. While previous scholarship has highlighted Dasan’s departure from Neo-Confucian views by interpreting humaneness as relational rather than internal or individualistic, limited attention has been given to its specific role in elucidating his philosophy. Despite the consensus on the importance of Dasan’s reinterpretation of humaneness in contrasting with NeoConfucianism, its function as a key term in his thought remains understudied. Dasan’s emphasis on the relatedness of humaneness aims not only to refute internality but also to encourage individual moral self-cultivation within the constraints of human existence. Moreover, this conception of humaneness is intricately linked to his holistic understanding of humanity. Thus, this paper elucidates the emphasis on situational uncertainty and plurality within Dasan’s reinterpretation of humaneness, alongside a comprehensive discussion of these themes within the conceptual framework of actual practice (行事) and situation (勢) that he later developed in his philosophical perspective.
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This study analyzes the push-pull factors of migration and re-migration of Tatar Muslims living in Korea between 1920 and 1945 and their lives during this period. The research examines the relationship Tatar Muslims had with Japan, their views on Koreans, and their positions within the changing international context of expanding and intensifying Japanese imperialism. Tatar Muslims migrated to Korea due to Russia’s anti-Islamic policies, famine, and Japan’s pro-Islamic policies aimed at expanding its imperialism. Under Japanese rule, the Tatar Muslim community fully assimilated into Japan’s colonial project, supporting anti-communist policies, teaching Japanese language and history, and providing military support. Simultaneously, they maintained their Islamic and Tatar ethnic identity by establishing mosques and Islamic schools, organizing religious gatherings, publishing the Qur’an, inviting ethnic leaders, and sustaining their communities. This behavior led to indifference or ignorance of Korean aspirations for independence. Their consistent pro-Japanese stance and the spread of socialism were major factors in their departure from Korea after Japan’s defeat. The history of Tatar migrant Muslims exemplifies the strategic choices minority migrant groups made to survive amidst the maelstrom of 20th-century imperialism.
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