평양 도시 건설 스펙터클에 관한 소고 — 열망과 체념의 정동을 중심으로 —

Abstract

Pyongyang is often described as a “massive movie set,” indeed the North Korean regime carefully plans Pyongyang and its spatial arrangement based on the ruling ideology. After the end of the Korean War, and in particular during the reconstruction of Pyongyang in the 1950s, socialist values and ideas were all-pervasive, so that the experiences and consciousness of the people living in Pyongyang were constructed according to the represented image of Pyongyang. Borrowing Debord’s critical concept of ‘spectacle,’ this article investigates how the spectacle of Pyongyang gives rise to specific feelings, sentiments and emotions for North Koreans. The Pyongyang spectacle influences North Korean people to be passionate about the socialist revolution and encourages self-reliance in the face of foreign pressure. Moreover, the representation of Pyongyang and its effects tend to converge upon the leader, which is similar to Debord’s concept of the ‘concentrated spectacle.’ For example, the spectacle of ‘Pyongyang speed’ in the 1950s delivered a certain degree of passion to North Koreans, but its unusual productivity and achievement was interpreted as the outcome of Kim Il-Sung’s leadership. A similar process has been repeated throughout North Korean history, but in recent years Pyongyang’s reconstruction and its concomitant spectacle, in addition to inspiring a passion for the socialist revolution and for self-reliance, have also engendered a new and now more important passion: the desire for consumer products. This does not, however, imply a positive changes in North Korean society. Although the Pyongyang spectacle does not affect North Koreans in quite the same way as it used to, they are far from completely free of the spectacle. As with other people elsewhere in the world, they face an unsolved problem of how to escape from the chain of signs and images which create the iron cage of human being.