Social Movements and Nationalism: Comfort Women Movement and Narratives of Nation in Post-Democratization Korea, 1988-2007.

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of a political process of nationalist discourses in post-democratization South Korea. It traces the changes in the nationalist discourses formed around the ‘comfort women’ issue after the democratization from 1988 to 2007, focusing on discursive strategies of the movement and media reports. Despite a surfeit studies of nationalism concerning its formation and the conflicts of different ethnic groups between the nation-states or within a multi-ethnic nation, little research has been reported on the dynamics of nationalist discourses from different social groups after a robust nationalism settled in relatively homogeneous nation-states. By illuminating changes of the monopolized state-centered nationalist narratives established during the 1960s and 70s into diversified narratives of the Korean nation emerged after the democratization movements in the 1980s, this dissertation highlights the role of social movements in providing a moral ground for the nationalized people to challenge the official narrative of a nation. The frame analysis on the statements released on the Wednesday Demonstration by the comfort women movement illustrates the dynamic process of the movements’ strategies, working with the official narrative of Korean nation. It also explores the interaction between the movement and larger society by analyzing the reports on the ‘comfort women’ issue in the Chosun Ilbo and the Hankyoreh. It concludes that the Korean nationalism after democratization is not merely made by the state or political elites, but a result of the constant struggle of different political and social agents in the society. The official narrative of the Korean nation, which is state-centered, patriarchal and prioritizing the economic values and efficiency, has been constantly modified as various social movements, particularly the comfort women movement, after the democratization. The movement engages in (re)constructing the nationalist identity with a communitarian nationalist discursive strategy, based more on the universal value and can be expanded to transnational sympathy.