한국전쟁과 냉전의 유령: 기지촌 서사의 변화 양상 -1990년대 이후 기지촌 서사와 그레이스 M. 조의 텍스트를 중심으로-

Abstract

To date, Korean society has failed to solve the issue – putting negative stigmatization on women in military prostitution while exploiting them as a method of foreign exchange earnings – in history. Social gazes upon them were cold. Most Koreans defined military prostitution as a necessary evil, which ultimately allowed people to blame these women instead of foreign customers, whoremongers, and business owners. Camptown women were marked as ‘Yang-gong-ju’, a foreigners’ whore. Then, this label was passed down to their children without any changes. In society, mixed-blooded children had no opportunities for recognition just because they were half Korean with different appearances than others. Despite all these problems, matters surrounding the Camptown slowly passed into silence as both US forces and the Camp reduced its size. For a moment, the Murder of Yun Geum-i led people to focus on Camptown women’s suffering, but as soon as it turned into the method of anti-Americanism, concerns about their lives diminished. Primarily, this study focuses on the representative Camptown novels in the 1990s, mostly published after the Murder of Yun Geum-i, and analyzes their significance and limits. After that, the thesis spotlights 『Tastes Like War』 by Grace M. Cho, a second-generation Korean-American female sociologist. 『Tastes Like War』 is the life history text of a woman who married an American man and migrated to the U.S. In the book, ‘Koonja’, the woman from military Camptown in South Korea, marries an American husband and moves to the United States, but her past brings schizophrenia to the last. Clearly, her illness was a social disease caused by the loss of family, the war itself, memories of hunger, and ongoing racial discrimination. Furthermore, the disease was a defense mechanism for enduring humiliation to her. To investigate Koonja’s past, her daughter Grace studies sociology at the university. While researching the Korean War, U.S. Army base, and Military Camptown, Grace starts to understand her mother’s trauma truly. After Grace’s work, Koonja is no longer a person suffering from miserable traumas; she is redefined as an honorable woman who overcame war, poverty, violence, and discrimination. Thus, 『Tastes Like War』 points out the neglected parts of current Camptown novels with a solid eye. In conclusion, this research examines both Korean Camptown narratives and nonfiction of Grace M. Cho, asking about the significance of memory and representation at the end.