Journal of the Korean Geographical Society (대한지리학회지)

The Korean Geographical Society (대한지리학회)
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The Urban Spaces and Politics of Hybridity: Repoliticizing the Depoliticized Ethnicity in Los Angeles Koreatown

혼성성의 도시 공간과 정치 : 로스앤젤레스 한인타운에서의 탈정치화된 민족성의 재정치화

  • Park, Kyong-Hwan (Department of Social Studies Education, Ewha Womans University)
  • 박경환 (이화여자대학교 사회생활학괴)
  • Published : 2005.12.01
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Abstract

The term hybridity has recently emerged as one of the most popularized leitmotivs in contemporary diasporic and transnational problematics on migrants' nomadic experiences. Especially, in postcolonial politics, hybridity is argued to provide a critical 'third space' on which to challenge discursive boundaries and redescribe power-embedded history However, this paper suggests that the hybrid subject position can be easily articulated in producing new cultural discourse and empowering hegemonic subjects in certain spates. Based on distinguishing the intentional, conscious hybridity from the organic, lived hybridity, this research Intends to investigate the Janus-faced, double-edged nature of the postcolonial politics of hybridity in the case of Los Angeles Koreatown. First, I discuss how a place of organic hybridity in Koreatown can lead to challenging invented and depoliticized ethnicity. At the second half of this paper, 1 focus on understanding the ways in which new Korean American professionals and elites employ the discourse of '1.5 generation' as an intentional hybridity for empowering their own political position at a local scale. I conclusively suggest that hybridity should be a deconstructive strategy to unlearn dominant socio-spatial boundaries rather than bring about the third space as a reterritorialized political position.

혼성성(hybridity)' 이라는 용어는 최근 초국적 이주자들과 같은 유목민적 주체들에 관심을 가지는 사회이론적 연구들의 주요용어로 등장하였다. 특히, 탈식민주의적 정치와 관련하여, 혼성성은 담론의 경계에 도전하고 권력이 내재화된 역사와 문화를 비판적인 차원에서 새롭게 기술할 수 있는 제3의 공간을 제공할 수 있을 것으로 인식되고 있다. 그러나 본 논문은 혼성적인 주체의 위치성이 오히려 새로운 문화 담론을 생산하고 새로운 헤게모니를 잉태하는 데에 용이하게 작용할 수 있음을 지적한다. 본 논문은 의도된 의식적 혼성성을 경험된 유기적 혼성성으로부터 분리함으로써 탈식민주의에서 혼성성의 정치가 가지는 이중적 본질을 살펴보고자 한다. 경험적인 수준에서, 본 연구는 로스앤젤레스 한인타운에 입지한 '영빈관' 이라는 레스토랑의 시대공간적 변화를 혼성성의 관점에서 읽음으로써 어떻게 탈정치화된 민족성을 드러낼 수 있는가에 주목한다. 둘째, 본 논문의 후반부에서는 지난 10여 년간 로스앤젤레스 한인타운 내에서 새로운 헤게모니를 형성하고 있는 한국계 엘리트 및 전문가 계급들이 소위 '1.5세대' 라는 혼성성의 담론을 통하여 어떻게 그들의 정치적인 지위를 강화하는가에 주목한다. 결론적으로 본 논문은 혼성성이 새로운 대안으로서의 제3의 정치적 지위를 욕망하기보다는 사회공간적 경계들에 도전하는 비판전략의 하나로서 '스스로를 해체하기 위한 개념'으로 이해되어 야 함을 지적한다.

Keywords

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