SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND NATIONALISM: COMFORT WOMEN MOVEMENT AND NARRATIVES OF NATION IN POST- DEMOCRATIZATION KOREA, 1988-2007 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN POLITICAL SCIENCE MAY 2017 BY Whi Chang Dissertation Committee: Sankaran Krishna, Chairperson Manfred Henningsen Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller Jungmin Seo Edward J. Shultz Keywords: ‘comfort women’, Korean nationalism, social movements ABSTRACT This dissertation is a study of a political process of nationalist discourses in post-democratization South Korea. It traces the changes in the nationalist discourses formed around the ‘comfort women’ issue after the democratization from 1988 to 2007, focusing on discursive strategies of the movement and media reports. Despite a surfeit studies of nationalism concerning its formation and the conflicts of different ethnic groups between the nation-states or within a multi-ethnic nation, little research has been reported on the dynamics of nationalist discourses from different social groups after a robust nationalism settled in relatively homogeneous nation-states. By illuminating changes of the monopolized state-centered nationalist narratives established during the 1960s and 70s into diversified narratives of the Korean nation emerged after the democratization movements in the 1980s, this dissertation highlights the role of social movements in providing a moral ground for the nationalized people to challenge the official narrative of a nation. The frame analysis on the statements released on the Wednesday Demonstration by the comfort women movement illustrates the dynamic process of the movements’ strategies, working with the official narrative of Korean nation. It also explores the interaction between the movement and larger society by analyzing the reports on the ‘comfort women’ issue in the Chosun Ilbo and the Hankyoreh. It concludes that the Korean nationalism after democratization is not merely made by the state or political elites, but a result of the constant struggle of different political and social agents in the society. The official narrative of the Korean nation, which is state-centered, patriarchal and prioritizing the economic values and efficiency, has been constantly modified as various social movements, particularly the comfort women movement, after the democratization. The movement engages in (re)constructing the nationalist identity with a communitarian nationalist discursive strategy, based more on the universal value and can be expanded to transnational sympathy. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. i LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES AND PICTURES .................................................................................................. viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................... ix A NOTE TO READERS ........................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The “Final and Irreversible” Agreement on the Comfort Women Issue ....................................... 1 1.2 ‘Comfort Women’ Issue and the Process of Korean Nationalism .............................................. 12 1.3 Nationalism as Discourse and Political Process.......................................................................... 17 1.4 Myths of Korean Nationalism ..................................................................................................... 20 1.4.1 Historical continuity ............................................................................................................ 20 1.4.2 Korean nationalism is formed by the state and elites .......................................................... 22 1.4.3 Korean nationalism has not changed in essence ................................................................. 24 1.4.4 Korean nationalism is an obstacle in creating rational citizens .......................................... 24 1.5 History and Nationhood after Globalization and Democratization ............................................. 25 1.6 Case ............................................................................................................................................. 30 1.6.1 Emergence of history-related social movements ................................................................ 30 1.6.2 History related movements ................................................................................................. 33 1.7 Structure of the Chapters............................................................................................................. 37 CHAPTER 2. Communitarian Nationalism and the Role of Social Movements ................................ 40 2.1 Conundrum of Korean Nationalism: Is Korean Nationalism Civic or Ethnic? ........................... 40 2.2 Beyond Civic vs. Ethnic Nationalism ......................................................................................... 45 2.2.1 Civic vs. Ethnic Nationalism .............................................................................................. 45 2.2.2 State-framed vs. Counter-state nationalism ........................................................................ 47 2.2.3 Community-oriented and value-oriented nationalism ......................................................... 48 2.2.4 Alternative typology ........................................................................................................... 49 2.3 Theoretical Framework for Studying Korean Nationalism ......................................................... 52 2.4 Framework for Korean Nationalism ........................................................................................... 55 2.4.1 Social movements and nationalism ..................................................................................... 55 2.4.2 Culture, Identity, and Social Movements ............................................................................ 58 ii 2.4.3 Centrality of History in Social Movements in South Korea ............................................... 59 2.4.4 Conformist or dissident nationalism?.................................................................................. 62 2.5 Theories of Social Movements: How to Analyze the Impact of Social Movements on Larger Society? ................................................................................................................................................... 63 2.6 Reading Korean Nationalism in Korea ....................................................................................... 65 2.6.1 Reification of Korean nationalism ...................................................................................... 66 2.6.2 Origins of the Korean Nation .............................................................................................. 67 2.6.3 What Do Contentious Nations Mean?................................................................................. 68 2.6.4 Context of usage of language in Contents Analysis ............................................................ 70 2.6.5 Korean nationalism as projects ........................................................................................... 72 2.7 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 73 CHAPTER 3. METHODS ........................................................................................................................ 76 3.1 Methods in Nationalism and Social Movement Studies ............................................................. 79 3.1.1 Nationalism studies ............................................................................................................. 80 3.1.2 Social movements studies ................................................................................................... 81 3.2 Understanding Changes of Korean Nationalism ......................................................................... 82 3.3 Data ............................................................................................................................................. 83 3.4 Sampling and Coding .................................................................................................................. 86 3.4.1 Sampling Data ..................................................................................................................... 86 3.4.2 Coding ................................................................................................................................. 88 3.4.3 What is the article: editorials/columns/opinions vs. reports? .............................................. 89 3.4.4 News from the News Agency ............................................................................................. 89 3.5 Three Core Framing Tasks: Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Motivational Frames ......................... 92 CHAPTER 4. PROTO-NARRATIVE