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The Review of Korean Studies

The Cultural Politics of Place Names in Korea: Contestation of Place Names’ Territories and Construction of Territorial Identity

The Review of Korean Studies / The Review of Korean Studies, (P)1229-0076; (E)2773-9351
2010, v.13 no.2, pp.161-186
https://doi.org/10.25024/review.2010.13.2.007

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Abstract

The geopolitical location of the Korean peninsula is often considered to be a borderland or a buffer zone, providing conditions for the dynamics of cultural diversity and power struggles throughout its long history. In addition, the historical separation of the written (Chinese) language from the spoken (Korean) language in daily life has produced numerous examples of overlapping place names that identify the same site concurrently. Study of this unique situation within which Korean place names lie is thought to be better suited to the perspective of cultural politics. In this context, this paper aims to examine diverse cases connected with cultural-political transformation behind Korean place names, focusing on the elements of ideology, identity, power, and territory. This examination details the process of cultural politics, wherein a social group would only include the self-identity within its own territory while excluding the other from its own territory. In particular, the field work, aided by written documents, unveils the history that the contestation or contention among the territories of place names ended with the growth of territoriality by a dominant social group in order to consolidate its own territorial identity.

keywords
cultural politics, cultural geography, place names, contesting place names, territories of place names, territoriality, territorial identity.

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The Review of Korean Studies