국책영화 <속 팔도강산 - 세계를 간다> (1968) 속의 재현된 아프리카 이미지와 조국근대화 담론

Abstract

The African Continent was a very unfamiliar space to Koreans. The typical symbols that Koreans may have were 'primitiveness', 'savageness', 'poverty', 'diseases', 'political chaos' and so on. However the appearance of Africa appeared in the national movie, ‘The Land of Korea'(Paldo-gangsan II), produced by Ministry of Culture and Public Information, a State agency, in 1960 shows a big difference with those symbols. It is described positively as a space with modernized buildings and lives. At that time, the Government of Park Chung-hee felt the necessity of enlightening the people throughout the world in order to get a driving power of Motherland-modernization and this movie was the one produced to faithfully serve in this purpose. Accordingly, the national pride and the people's frontier spirit of Korea that has the time-honored traditions and history is awakened through Africa. And also it asks the people to see Africa in a positive viewpoint, not in the existing negative viewpoint. It is because it was the hidden purpose of this movie to encourage the people to earn dollars necessary for economic development by promoting the exports of commodities and labor forces to this unknown continent. South Korean Government absolutely needed the diplomatic supports from the emerging African countries in UN for the national security in the late 1960s. In order to make this possible, as there was a need to turn the negative image that the people have of Africa to a positive one, the positive image of Africa in the movie was made up in the purpose of gaining the political supports from these countries. Because of this, Africa is reflected in the appearance of having achieved Western modernization in this movie, not in the existence of the countries that have various and complicated problems by colonialism. Because this kind of image was made up in the political and economic interests of Korean Government at that time, if the circumstances that made this are changed, that image will be changed as well.