The Memory War of Koreans between the Ghost of Premodern Chosŏn and the Modern Value System of Contemporary Korea

Abstract

The civilization of an era is a combination of contemporary elements and cultural memories. These two elements are sometimes in harmony together, but they often collide with each other in the process of new civilizations overcoming old ones. In that sense, memory war is possible at any stage of civilization since the past exists not in the material world, but in the social psyche in the form of memories. Based primarily on collective memory theory and narratology, this study aims to identify the interacting modes in which the pre-modern collective memory collides with the modern Korean value system, taking the pre-modern Chosŏn as an object of analysis. This study traces the history of contemporary Koreans’ collective memory to find the roots of the current conflicts and divisions of Korean society. It attempts to find the shape of the conflicting mechanism by quantifying the elements of conflicting memories. Finally, this study aims to identify the battlefield map of memory war through tracing the history of currently colliding memories with each other. Importantly, this study reveals the driving force of social conflicts between the old and newly emerging collective memory by mapping the contours of collective memories and values conflicting among Koreans. The results of this study will contribute to understanding the dynamic mechanisms of social conflicts as well as to expanding into the interdisciplinary research of history, sociology, and cultural anthropology.