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‘The Subject-Form’ before and after the April Revolution -Ham Seokheon’s ‘Minjung’ discourse-

  • The Review of Korean History
  • 2013, (112), pp.363-404
  • Publisher : The Historical Society Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > History

Yun Sang Hyun 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This article is regarding the question, in a discursive dimension, how the April revolution was possible in the Syngman Rhee regime of South Korea. As one of causes that formed ‘the counter subject’ in the 1950s, Ham seokheon’s discourse of ‘Minjung’, nation, and Kukmin was investigated. With the flow of contradictory heritage of ethnic theory and renovated philosophy in the 1920s, Ham Seokheon was advancing toward the criticism of capitalist commodification, impersonalization of labor, political ideologization of religious and educational apparatuses in the late 1950s. Among nationalist remnants of Japanese colonialism and rapidly introduced Western culture and ideals, he had an opportunity to spread his critique of ‘modernity.’ While social repression and control by government was growing in the late 1950s, his 'Minjung' discourse was revealed. Through the articulation of civil discourse to demand social justice for the privileged class, this ‘counteridentification’ of “Minjung” discourse enabled the April Revolution against the nationalist discourses of the Syngman Rhee government, which insisted that the fate of individuals should be identified with the country's fate.

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