단군, 조선학 그리고 과학: 식민지 지식인의 보편을 향한 열망의 기호들

Abstract

This study seeks to re-interpret Dan-gun theory and Koreanology (Joseonhak)during colonial period under the rule of imperial Japan in the context of ‘specificity’ in cultural practice of nationalism, and in terms of deep longing for ‘universality’ represented by science. It is well known that during the colonial period of modern Korea, Koreanology was an academic expression of national self-establishment in modern traditional reconstruction. However, it involved antimonic gaps between certain historic location called Joseon and universal linguistic system of ‘science.’ This study was based on an assumption that a question about how to deal with certain nation as target of academic studies and deliver its ‘originality’ with universal languages was a crucial issue in Dan-gun theory and Koreanologic discussions during colonial period. In this course, Marxists and positivists set academism and science under their own privilege in the manner only they can understand them, and exclude non-systematic discussions of whole generation as unscientific things, so that they could carry through hegemony in academic forum of Joseon, a colonized country under Japanese imperialism. This paper is an essay that employs a universal language of ‘science’ to re-contextualize previous studies' comprehensions about colonial academic forum focusing on ‘Koreanologic movement’ in 1930's, and thereby extends discussions into comprehensions about academic forum after national liberation of Korea from Japanese imperialism.