Culture of Remembrance in Late Chosŏn Korea: Bringing an Unknown War Hero Back into History

Abstract

Numerous scholarly works have been produced on “memory projects” as the culture and politics of nation-states in the modern world. Yet remaking of the past is not the monopoly of modernity. This paper investigates the problem of engineering memory in Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910) through the case of Kim Kyŏngsŏ, a commanding general during the Ming-Chosŏn joint war against the rising Jurchen in 1619. I examine competing memories constructed by various social political groups and the historical and cultural contexts in which such construction took place. In particular, I analyze the processes of inventing, commemorating, and enshrining “public memory” as a way for a disadvantaged social group of local elites from Chosŏn’s northwestern region to overcome social and political discrimination against them.