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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Rituals of Decolonization: The Role of Inner-Migrant Intellectuals in North Korea, 1948-1967 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/04176993 Author Kim, Elli Sue Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Rituals of Decolonization: The Role of Inner-Migrant Intellectuals in North Korea, 1948-1967 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in East Asian Languages and Cultures by Elli Sua Kim 2014 © Copyright by Elli Sua Kim 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Rituals of Decolonization: The Role of Inner-Migrant Intellectuals in North Korea, 1948-1967 by Elli Sua Kim Doctor of Philosophy in East Asian Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor John Duncan, Chair This study is an attempt to break away from chuch’e sasang (Juche; “ideology of self- reliance”) as the master framework to explain North Koran particularities, such as “ethnocentric nationalism,” “authoritarianism,” and “dynastic rule.” Instead, I employ a historical framework of decolonization to examine how North Korean postcoloniality has been shaped within the multiple contexts of socialism, division, and the Cold War. While conceptualizing colonial-era intellectuals, who chose the North over the South after liberation as “inner-migrant” intellectuals within the larger context of the ideologically divided intellectual communities of the Cold War era, I define “inner-migrant” intellectuals as postcolonial socialist intelligentsias. They were at the heart of the state’s decolonization project, which was to shape state policies and sociocultural articulations of national identity. Each of the chapters strategically utilizes of the four key words—ritual, rationale, ambition, and allure—as tropes to demonstrate the universal and particular postcolonial features of North Korea. The introductory chapter metaphorically uses the term “ritual’ to define decolonization as the attempts by North Korean intellectuals to discursively wash away colonial ii remnants and revive a national essence. The first chapter discusses the term “rational” as part of North Korea’s postcolonial objectives to produce a decolonized knowledge of Chosŏn minjok and to build a new socialist state with the ultimate goal of creating a unified Communist nation through examining the semiotic functions of Chosŏn minsokhak (ethnography). The second chapter investigates North Korea’s postcolonial ambition to become a leader anti-imperial internationalism while defining the North Korean travel ocherk (a Soviet style of literary sketch) in the 1950s as an anti-imperial internationalist praxis. More specifically, this chapter focuses on how North Korean intellectuals’ creation of the imaginative geography of the socialist bloc generated anti-imperialism as the ideological norm of internationalism. The third and final chapter investigates how the postcolonial desire of former KAPF [Korean Artists Proletarian Federation] members to create a decolonized patriotic nation is reflected in the discourse of KAPF and Kim Il Sung anti-Japanese struggle. Through utilizing the term “allure” as North Korean intellectuals’ desire to create a decolonized patriotic nation, this chapter delineates how their postcolonial allure led them to place great value on the narrative of Kim Il Sung’s anti- Japanese revolutionary struggle, which later became the root of the chuch’e ideology. In sum, “Rituals of Decolonization” offers three contributions. By historicizing the cultural activities of inner-migrant intellectuals from before and during decolonization, it introduces a new approach to the cultural-intellectual history of North Korea and expands upon Cold War cultural scholarship on the inter-cultural networks that shaped the socio-cultural identities of states in the former socialist bloc. At the same time, this study’s emphasis on North Korea’s postcolonial trajectory within the context of the socialist system broadens the scope of postcolonial studies, which has mainly focused on the continued links between colonies and empires after the end of formal colonial relationships. iii The dissertation of Elli S. Kim is approved. Namhee Lee Fred G. Notehelfer John Duncan, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iv This dissertation is dedicated to my parents and late brother. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ....................................................................................... ii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. ix Introduction – Rituals of Decolonization ........................................................................................ 1 North Korean Decolonization in the Socialist Substructure of the World System ..................... 5 The Inner-Migrant Intellectuals as Postcolonial Socialist Intelligentsias ................................... 8 Materials .................................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter Outline ......................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter One – Chosŏn Minsokhak (民俗學) as the Semiotics of Postcolonial Rationale: From Ethnography to National Ethnography ......................................................................................... 27 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 27 The Emergence of Folklore, Ethnography, and Ethnology in the Modern/Colonial World System ....................................................................................................................................... 30 Soviet Ethnography and Folklore: Semiotics of Multi-ethnic, Socialist Sate ........................... 33 Overview of Scholarship on North Korean Minsokhak as “Folklore” ...................................... 37 Chosŏn Minsokhak in Colonial Korea: Regional Studies vs. Chosŏn Studies Movement ....... 40 New Beginning: Chosŏn Minsokhak as Marxist Science for the People .................................. 45 The Structure of the Institution of Archeology and Ethnography ............................................. 47 The Intimate Partnership: Archaeology and Minsokhak Decolonizing the Prehistory of Korea ................................................................................................................................................... 50 Ethnographical Research: The Socio-Economic Formation of Chosŏn Minjok ....................... 55 Minsokhak in Historical Science Ethnogenesis of Chosŏn Minjok: Question of Tan’gun Mythology ................................................................................................................................. 60 Transnational Socialist Culture in Everyday People’s Lives: Embracing Sociology under the Umbrella of Minsokhak ............................................................................................................. 64 Minsokhak as Applied Science: National Culture to Socialist Culture ..................................... 67 Reflection .................................................................................................................................. 69 Chapter Two – Postcolonial Ambition in Travel Ocherk of the 1950s: Anti-imperial Internationalism and Socialist Modernity in Imaginative Geography .......................................... 71 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 71 Internationalisms of Socialism in the Modern/Colonial World System ................................... 74 Ocherk in the Soviet Union ....................................................................................................... 77 Ocherk: Local Variations .......................................................................................................... 79 The Rise of the Discourse on Ocherk in 1950s’ North Korea .................................................. 81 Travel Ocherk in 1950’s North Korea ....................................................................................... 85 The Soviet Union: the Admirable Friend .................................................................................. 86 vi New China: An Invincible Friendship Forged with Blood ....................................................... 92 North Vietnam: The Heroic Nation ........................................................................................... 98 The Mongolian People’s Republic: ......................................................................................... 105 Socialist Brothers where Sun Rises on the Boundless Steppe ................................................ 105 Travel to India: Pursuing Asian Solidarity .............................................................................. 107 Reflection ................................................................................................................................ 109 Chapter Three – Postcolonial Allure