북한 무용의 민족 정체성 재현에 대한 심미 정치학적 논의

Abstract

This study explores the possibility that North Korean dance, often regarded as a symbolic tool of ideological propaganda, can also function as an aesthetic-political space of affective engagement. Building on Roland Bleiker’s theory of aesthetic politics, the research shifts focus from fixed representational meaning to the gaps and tensions within choreographic form, wherein affective responses emerge. The study analyzes two emblematic performances from the 1999 and 2003 Pyongyang concerts, examining spatial asymmetry, gestural silence, visual dispersal, and the role of the female body in relation to collective formations. Through this lens, North Korean dance is not simply reproducing national identity but performing it through affective structures that invite interpretation, negotiation, and emotional resonance. The method involves a theoretical application of aesthetic-political concepts to specific visual and choreographic elements, referencing Barthes’ différance and Forsythe’s choreographic object theory. This approach reveals the potential for political imagination even within rigid artistic forms. The findings suggest that North Korean dance creates moments of felt dissonance that open space for identity to be sensed rather than proclaimed, thereby reconstituting it performatively. The study contributes to the aesthetic turn in Korean studies and offers a new paradigm for interpreting tightly controlled cultural production through the politics of feeling.