재일조선인이라는 아포리아 ―서경식의 민족-민중론과 디아스포라론 재고(再考)―

Abstract

This paper examines Suh Kyungsik’s writings published in the 1990s and early 2000s, his search for zainichi Korean identity and subjectivity in terms of nation, people, and language. In the context of the post-Cold War era, which called for a critique of the nation-state, Suh invoked the zainichi Korean subject through concepts such as new nation, people, semi-refugee, and diaspora. In his writings, we can read traces of an awareness of the situational determination of being zainichi Koreans born and raised in Japan, and an earnest self-reflection on their connection and disconnection with the people of his homeland. As a party who endured the era of violence by the side of the victims, he sought a path for Zainichi Koreans to advance within the mutual determinacy of history, rather than as a being floating, between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The not-so-easy path that Suh pursued always contained wavering and difficulties, but the aporia itself symbolized the lives of Zainichi Koreans. This paper first examine the discourse of zainichi Korean that emerged in Japan during the post-Cold War period and Suh’s critical approach to it. Second, it examine Suh’s perspective on the concept of ‘the people’ in south Korea and the disconnection with Zainichi Koreans. Third, it reconsiders the problem of rights to ‘mother tongue’ and national language advocated by Suh and argues the possibility of ‘impure mother tongues’ of the diaspora. Through these discussions on nation, people, and language, this study characterize the subjectivity of Zainichi Koreans sought by Suh Kyungsik, as a diaspora that resonates with ‘the people’, while always containing aporia.