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ABSTRACT
Liberated on August 15, 1945, Seoul was reorganized as the “capital” of the nation-state instead of a “colonial dual city.” Public spaces and buildings in Gyeongseong that were built under Imperial Japan’s assimilation policy were dismantled. During the national construction period, national monuments were built, and spaces for national ceremonies were established. Seoul was reshuffled into an ideological space based on the anti-communist ideology of U.S. military rule, the blockade of the 38th Parallel, and the establishment of respective governments of the two Koreas. With the formation of the global Cold War order, the aim was to unify Seoul’s spatial power and compete for an inter-Korean regime. Seoul established a spatial order for right-wing nationalism through the U.S. military government and the Rhee Syng-man regime, as confirmed in the Korean literature’s spatial representation during the liberation period. However, the literature of Yi Gwang-su and Yeom Sang-seop showed that Seoul functioned as a cultural contact zone during the liberation period through the spatial practice of diverse and heterogeneous subjects who did not move according to the spatial order of such right-wing nationalism. This confirms Seoul’s multi-layered spatiality, where cultures, such as modern and pre-modern, Western and Eastern, empires and colonies, and leftists and rightists, are mixed and overlapped. Its spatial representation as a cultural contact zone created a rift in its spatial order, reorganized it as the capital of a nation-state and activated the literary imagination for producing diverse and heterogeneous social spaces.
Notes
1 Colonial cities are spaces for the domination of colonial groups against colonial natives, and the cultural heterogeneity of both creates social and spatial segregation. In this case, it is common for native dwellings to retain traditional and pre-modern characteristics, while colonial powers construct new dwellings to develop modern and Western characteristics. Notably, colonial cities are created and operated through policies – architecture, urban planning, rituals, and the like – that were deliberately planned and designed by colonial powers as a device for domination and control (Kim Baek-young Citation2009, 122‒123).
2 The liberation period discussed in this article refers to the period between Korea's liberation from Japan on August 15, 1945 to the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950. Other studies have defined the period between liberation until the establishment of a unified South Korean government on August 15, 1948 as a period of “U.S. military rule” or “liberation space.” The “U.S. military rule” designation considers the transitional nature of this period during which the U.S. military forces exerted immense power in government administration. In this article, the period from 1945 to 1950 is defined as a singular, continuous liberation period, during which the goal of building a postcolonial nation was expressed after the fall of Imperial Japan and the liberation of colonial Korea.
3 “Also and relatedly these forms of movement are an important way in which the world beyond the self is sensed and experienced, within a way how the world comes to be seen, felt, experienced and known about, how it is made an object of ‘affect’” (Urry Citation2007, 59‒60).
4 In May 1946, the United States and Soviet forces legally blocked the 38th Parallel, citing the spread of cholera. However, blocking the 38th Parallel was not lifted even after eradicating the disease. At that time, the first joint Soviet Union-U.S. committee was adjourned indefinitely, and the 38th Parallel worked as a practical boundary as the establishment of a single government between the two Koreas began in earnest (Jeong Citation2003, 184).
5 Kim, Song’s The Weaponless Nation is a collection of short novels including “Hurray,” “The Weaponless Nation,” and “Ring the Gong!” from “Baekmin” No. 1(1945.12) to No. 3(1946.3), respectively. Baekminmunhwasa published the collection under the same name.
6 Kim, Nam-cheon’s August 15, 1945 was the first full-length novel published upon the liberation of Korea. It was published in “Jayu Shinmun” on October 5, 1945 and was discontinued after 165 chapters on June 28, 1946. It has historical value as a novel set in Seoul immediately upon liberation.
7 Street politics, which began at the same time as liberation, had the double meaning of national liberation and human liberation and was in line with the carnival-like aspect accompanying the state of anarchy. From the fall of 1945 to the spring of 1946, representations of the people that dominated South and North Korea, as well as the left and right, overflowed in the streets. National Anthem, Taegeukgi, and the enemy flag were representative symbols (Cheon Citation2009, 55‒101).
8 Diajing’s correct name is sulfadiazine, which is a sulfur-based antibiotic. Diajing came in supplies for the U.S. military after liberation, and it was considered a panacea and sold on the black market at a high price.
9 Dance was regarded as an expression of freedom, democracy, modernity, and culture; individuals suppressed by nationalism and anti-communist ideology expressed their desire for freedom and sexuality through dance (Joo Citation2009, 277‒299).
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Taeyoung Oh
Taeyoung Oh is an assistant professor at the Dongguk University WISE Campus in South Korea. He received his Ph.D. degree in Korean Language and Literature from Dongguk University. His primary interests include exploring how spatial order is reorganized following system transformations and social structural changes, the performance and desire of moving subjects, and the geographical imagination that emerges through cultural representation.