[KS] On term "haebang"

Kelly Jeong kelly.jeong at ucr.edu
Mon Feb 8 11:48:06 EST 2010


Hello,

I found a brief discussion of several words that seemingly mean the
same thing as "haebang," and discussed them in a footnote for my as
yet unpublished article about the legacy of the 'collaborationist'
writers.  Don't know how helpful it'll be but pls see below.

Footnote #26
One can see the contentious nature of the decolonization even in the
politics of naming the historical moment.  The literary critic Kim
Sûng-hwan, for example, highlights the nomenclature of the recovery of
the nation, i.e., the different ways of naming what happened in Korea
at the moment of Japan’s defeat on August 15, 1945. Firstly, there is
the word haebang, or “liberation.”  According to the author, the word
indicates the nation’s passive position that received decolonization
through the bigger world powers’ intervention.  Next is the word
tong’nip or “independence,” which he also designates as inaccurate,
for Korea did not achieve independence purely through its own means
and through internal struggle.  Then there is kwangbok, or “recovery
of light.”  He argues that of all the possible names for Korea’s
decolonization this is the most problematic and objectionable, as it
harkens back to the politics of feudal Korea and the loyalist
sentiment with which it is associated.  It was first used in the
context of anti-colonial militia belonging to the Provisional
Government of Korea in Shanghai.  It reflects, according to the
author, a view of history that belongs to the aristocratic ruling
class of Chosôn dynasty, or yangban.  His explication commands one’s
attention, as the phenomenon is a good indicator of the degree to
which the decolonization of Korea immediately became politicized,
revealing how even the politics of the very naming continues to
highlight the emotionally fraught history surrounding such national
recovery and its agent.  While this explication is helpful, the author
curiously continues to use the generally accepted term haebang
(liberation) without much justification for doing so.
Kim Sûng-hwan, Study of the Space of Decolonization’s Realist
Literature (Haebang kong’gan’ûi hyônsil chu’ûi munhak yôn’gu, Seoul:
Iljisa, 1991), 28-30.



best,

kelly

On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 2:24 AM, Matti Tervo <matti.tervo at jyu.fi> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> Have any of you run into the term "haebang" (Revised romanization) in
> respective fields. I am studying political rhetoric of the 1980s and Chun
> Doo-hwan seems to have grown an affection to this term.
>
> Obviously it is linked to the term and concept "jiefang" in Chinese and
> some of the events that deserve the name "liberation" in China during
> 1940s and 1950s.
>
> I am interested where this term might have occurred the first time in East
> Asia and especially in Korea and with what kind of connototations.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Matti Tervo
> Jyväskylä University graduate student
>
>
>



--
Kelly Y. Jeong
Assistant Professor,
Department of Comparative Literature & Foreign Languages
UC Riverside
900 University Avenue HMNSS 2401
Riverside, CA  92521

Tel  951 827 5007
Fax 951 827 2160




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