일제 식민지 시기 ‘조선적 악’의 표상과 ‘지식화’ 과정

초록

This study traces the representation of ‘Korean evil’ constructed by colonizers during the Japanese colonial period and the process of its ‘knowledge formation,’ examining the ambivalence inherent within it. Within the logic of ‘civilization’ used to justify colonial rule, the colonizers were compelled to discover and systematically fabricate an evil specific to the colonized, driven by prejudice, a discriminatory gaze, and an instinctive fear of the unknown. To demonstrate this, the paper examines three specific cases: the typification of everyday evil in Joseon Manhwa (Korean Cartoons); the criminalization process that extended moral judgments into judicial punishments through the systems of summary conviction and flogging in the 1910s; and the publication of Crimes Specific to Joseon, which attempted to convert discriminatory perceptions into universal knowledge in the name of statistics and science. In conclusion, this study reveals that the unilaterally defined representation and knowledge formation of ‘Korean evil’ were the results of the contradictions of colonial rule and the lack of political legitimacy—which could not be fully resolved even under the pretext of ‘civilization’—as well as the immediate, instinctive fear of the colonizers paradoxically triggered by their own hatred and stigmatization.

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