The Modern Korean Nation, Tan’gun, and Historical Memory in Late Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Century Korea

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 고려대학교 한국사연구소
· 수록지 정보 : International Journal of Korean History / 19권 / 2호 / 213 ~ 240페이지
· 저자명 : 김수자

초록

Tan’gun was the symbol of a community connected by blood that accompaniedthe image of unity and purity in Korean history. It played a major role in the developmentand settlement of a homogenous nationalism, defining Koreans asdescendants of Tan’gun and therefore members of a “single” ethnic group.
“Tan’gun” was also at the center of the process of creating a modern nation. Historicallyin each period, the “symbolic” Tan’gun moved with its own life forceand performed various functions apart from the “real” Tan’gun.
The making of a Korean national consciousness was closely related to the processand the way of remembering Tan’gun. Ways to remember Tan’gun differeddepending on the times in the face of the national crisis. The “bundling” ofTan’gun and Kija that continued from the early Chosôn period began to be disintegratedas foreign countries plundered the Korean sovereignty. Kija was graduallyexcluded from the historical consciousness of the Korean people while thememory of Tan’gun was emphasized. This reflected the sentiment of the times aspeople tried to overcome the crisis by strengthening national consciousnessthrough Tan’gun.
Hereby, Koreans escaped from the medieval self-awareness centered around Chinaand acquired the national self-identity of the modern times with an independenthistory and a unique culture, different from China and the rest of the world.

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