대한제국기 잡지와 애국론의 혼종성

Abstract

Previous studies on patriotism and nationalism in modern Korea mostly manifest the following three tendencies. First, these studies adopted a transcendental approach, presupposing the existence of patriotism without focusing on the formation processes of discourses on patriotism or the plurality of these discussions. Second, they actively investigated newspapers as a main source of literature data for research but did not intensively analyze magazines that surpassed the other media types in terms of diversity and completeness of contents. Third, they paid less attention to aspects of translated text and the independent intervention of translation receivers. To overcome the limitations of previous research, this study sheds light on the transitional characteristics of discourses on patriotism presented in magazines published during the era of the Korean Empire. Discourses on patriotism are generally linked to the political orientation of media channels introducing them. However, there are also cases where conflicting theories of patriotism coexist within a single media channel, as shown in the magazine Joyangbo (朝陽報) and the journal Taegeukhakbo (太極學報). Particularly, the article “Discussing the Patriotic Mind” (論愛國心) presented in Joyangbo aligns with the theory of anti-patriotism, thus evaluated as an unusual example of discourses on patriotism given the prevalence of patriotic movements during the era of the Korean Empire. However, as this discussion in Joyangbo clearly reflects the prevailing concerns of the era, extended research based on the entire range of media during the same period may lead to the discovery of similar opinions. Furthermore, translation accelerated a departure from an era where showing loyalty to the sovereign was deemed as patriotism. This phenomenon is represented by instances of Liang Qichao’s theory of patriotism translated and adjusted in various forms. However, the idea of patriotism indicated in the same translated text does not reflect only a single political viewpoint, as shown in the journal Seowoo (西友) and the magazine Sonyeon-hanbando (少年韓半嶋) where Liang Qichao’s theory of patriotism was applied for different purposes. It is worth noting that the virtue of showing loyalty to the sovereign is consistently mentioned in Taegeukhakbo, an institutional journal published by Korean students engaged in the latest academic studies overseas. Nonetheless, the significance of showing loyalty to the sovereign varies in the discourses presented in Taegeukhakbo. These observations clearly demonstrate the hybrid nature of the transitional characteristics of channels of discourse focussed on the theory of patriotism that were developed during the era of the Korean Empire.