‘불온’(不穩)과 통치성 - 식민지 시기 '불온'의 문화정치

Abstract

This paper focuses on the word 'buron' which has been continuously used until now and which exercises social influence and regulative power through unique signification. While some words appeared in a specific period and went through the process of use and extinction, other words 'have persistently survived' throughout the ages rather than becoming 'a dead language'. The destiny of language is not only decided by the (un)predictable sum of extremely ordinary and accidental factors, but it also depends on the desire of main agents, the political/social environment specific to particular periods, and the governance paradigm. Also, although so many words have existed to be used for a long time irrespective of the period, there are not many words to 'survive' in a strong and unique way. 'Buron' is one of words to be noted because of uniqueness of significance and mode as well as a long time of survival. Since this word has appeared before modern era, it becomes a essential keyword to understand the historicity of Korean society. This paper attempts to discuss "how the word 'buron' has survived in Korean society". For this discussion, it is necessary to investigate the colonial period when the word 'buron' began to have the modern characteristic. It is important to remember that 'the history of colonization' starting with the 20th century means 'the history of buron'. In fact, the word 'buron' was explosively used all over the country in the colonial period. And it is necessary to pay attention to conceptualization process and operation method of 'buron' in this period because the noticeable change in the meaning category of 'buron' happened quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Keeping that point in mind, this paper is intended to explore the process and the aspect of meaning formation of 'buron' in the colonial period by examining the governmental legislation and document of the time as well as articles of the press. And this paper attempts to consider how the history of 'buron' is formed and changed with the beginning of the modern era. I hope that this paper provides the chance to discuss 'the buron of colony' by reconstituting the semantic network of the word 'buron' and to reconsider the trace of colonization by looking back the current meaning of 'buron'.