◆ 서지사항

- 논문명 : “Joseonot and Revolutionary Womanhood in North Korea, 1955–1960”

- 저자 : 도지인, 박민철

- 수록지명 : Korea Journal (Vol. 61, No.2)

- 발행일 : 2021.06.30.

- 페이지 : pp.241-265

 

◆ 키워드

Socialism, Revolution, North Korean Women, Joseonot, Anti-revisionism, Juche

 

◆ 초록

The present analysis illuminates the impact of tradition in the constitution of North Korean revolutionary womanhood based on the regime’s idealizing narratives of Joseonot (traditional Korean dress). After the Korean War, the cultivation of socialist personalities for the working Joseonnyeoseong (North Korean women) increasingly became wedded to traditional models of sacrifice both in and outside the home. To avoid the reductionism of explanations centered on patriarchy or the gendered nature of the North Korean state, the study argues that the pronounced weight of tradition in constructing revolutionary womanhood after the Korean War should be attributed to the pressing urgency of anti-revisionism during the political crisis of legitimacy in the mid-1950s. Faced with mounting dissent in the wake of de-stalinization, Kim Il Sung claimed exclusive political legitimacy and superior nationalism based on his self-proclaimed mandate to dictate juche (self-reliance). Accordingly, the aesthetical and ideological attention given to women’s Joseonot represents a facet of socialist indoctrination unique to 1955–1960 rather than a gendered dress code rooted in patriarchy. The formulation of Joseonot as the socialist Korean women’s dress epitomized the interplay between revolutionary and national essence central to Pyongyang’s postcolonial socialist modernity and claim to nation-wide leadership. Throughout the process of regime consolidation, the question of how socialist Joseonnyeoseong is became inseparable from how genuinely Korean she is.