두 번의 전후(戰後)와 동아시아 인민/난민의 생명정치사 - 이주·격리·학살의 모빌리티와 면역의 자기 서사를 중심으로 -

Abstract

This article focuses on the two postwar periods of the liberation and the Korean War. Through this, it traces the immune narratives that the state and social associations formed around the right to membership during the period when the reinforcement of the boundaries of identity and the establishment of a defensive front were urgent in response to the memory of invasion called war, from a glocal horizon encompassing Jeju, Yeosu, Suncheon, East Asia and Europe. According to political philosopher Esposito, from the standpoint of the national organism, the disease/evil that attacks the political community is understood as occurring when a foreign element infiltrates the body. At this time, the state was considered to seek preventive measures to protect the community from the infiltration of external elements, and in this case, “the foreign is thought of only in the context of its preventive disposal.” The violent history of biopower, which destroyed the intimacy of social associations including blood-related communities by designating and expelling foreign elements as antigens or distinguishing between the people to be protected and illegal refugees, was built on the above principle. However, for later creators and actors, immunization is no longer thought of as “the result of defensive activities against foreign things,” but as an “experiment of unique and original heterogeneity” based on “the connection of two different series.” At this point, the mobility of individual actors and the memory of social associations that attempted to strengthen mutual intimacy by interacting with or incorporating and embodying foreign things began to emerge as the center of the narrative of immunity. As Hannah Arendt discussed, “completely recalling and sharing with others” the stories of refugees who were identified as antigens and expelled by the state, provides them with the political possibility of restoring their social membership. In order to explore such political possibilities, this article examines the experiences of forced migration, isolation, and genocide caused by the state’s crackdown on mobility, such as the Jeju 4.3 Incident, the Yeosu-Suncheon October 19 Incident, and the migration of war orphans from North and South Korea to Europe, as well as the historical traumas of East Asia. In addition, by examining individual memories of the events that were reproduced and narrated in various genres, such as novels and poems related to the Jeju 4.3 Incident, historical comics and video art, webtoons related to the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident, and documentaries and documentary novels related to war orphans, this article examines the mutual response of “intimate” social associations that existed beyond the “official history commemorated by the state” and the creation of solidarity based on self-narratives.