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Ainu, Train, Cosmopolitan - a study on the poetic representations which show that post-colonial and post-national thinking can be crossed and replaced -
Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
2012,
(68), pp.159-192
DOI : 10.17326/jhsnu..68.201212.159
Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
Research Area : Other Humanities
DOI : 10.17326/jhsnu..68.201212.159
Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
Research Area : Other Humanities
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Although the poetic representations such as ‘Ainu,’ ‘train,’ and ‘cosmopolitan,’ which this paper focuses on, are most commonly found in the colonialist discourse, they cannot be understood only as the gestures of resistance, including a subject’s personal objections and deviant attitudes, but they show complexity and become signification. It seems to be that these poetic representations embody postcolonial and post-national thinking. Of course, they are not the core discourse or main movements that penetrate the Japanese occupation period; however, the poetic representations are worthy of notice and analysis, though they remain in the periphery. These specific metaphors pass over the principal of the violent identification criticized by both colonialists’ nationalism and anti-colonial nationalism. These specific metaphors also conceive a community, but the community is not a group to establish a nation-state. Thus, this paper attempts to investigate the meaning of poetic representations that are not a subject within a community, but which exist beyond the principal of discrimination and exclusion. It is argued that the ‘nation’ of the Japanese occupation period cannot be always understood as (post) colonial discourse, and explained that the ‘universal’ cannot be always comprehended as (post) nationalistic discourse. These three representations show that there is a point that national and post-national thinking and colonial, anti-colonial, and post-colonial thinking can be crossed and replaced in anyway.
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