1960~1970년대 한국 대중사회논쟁의 전개 과정과 특성 -1971년 대중사회 논쟁을 중심으로-

Abstract

The ontology of ‘the mass’ (daejung) and the theory of mass society have not been studied, other than as the nationalistic concept of ‘the people’ (minjung). However, the ontology of ‘the mass’ still has an important meaning in that it was a powerful discourse of ‘interpellation’, having a different function from the word ‘people’ (minjung), ‘citizen’. In particular, the debate about mass society between Han Wansang and Roh Jaebong in February and July of 1971 was not only an academic discussion which showed the intellectuals’ consciousness of Korean society and the people’s identity, but also the moment in which the discourse on mass society became popular. This debate was based on the historical and academic context of the 1960s, which had been influenced by American psychological sociologists of the 1950s, such as David Riesman, William Kornhauser and John Galbraith. Afterwards, images of mass society became prevalent, that is to say, modern man’s destiny to suffer from moral anomy and alienation as part of a lonely crowd in a highly capitalistic society. This image stemmed from an imaginary Americanism that considered American mass society as a model of the future. However, the image also functioned as a source of hope and consolation for people who had just moved to the city and were experiencing cold relationships and an absenceofmoralnorms. The discourses on mass society in this period characteristically emphasized elitism and ignored the problem of political democracy, and were limited by following the nation-state’s ruling ideology which wanted ‘the mass’ to stay ignorant politically. As a result, those discourses had an antagonistic relationship with discourses on minjung and contributed to the construction of an opposing concept of minjung deeply related to the traditional culture.