The Construction of Childhood in the State Formation of North Korea in the 1950s and 1960s
Open Access DepositedFlower Buds of the Motherland
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This dissertation argues that the centering of the child in society was key to the legitimacy and success of the North Korean socialist revolution and the survival of the regime after the upheaval of the Korean War. The dissertation examines how the “ideal” North Korean child was invented in the 1950s and early 1960s and how the discourse surrounding childhood contributed to the construction of North Korean subjecthood in the postwar nation-building period. It analyzes a large breadth of archival sources, such as periodicals Chosŏn Yŏsŏng (Korean Women), Kyowŏn Sinmun (Teachers’ Newspaper), Adong Munhak (Children’s Literature), Inmin Kyoyuk (Elementary Education) and satirical cartoon magazine Hwalsal, later spelled Hwasal (Arrow), to investigate how the concepts of a particular North Korean child and the proper upbringing of children were developed and negotiated by everyday people in everyday scenarios, and how average people assumed the roles the state imparted upon them in order to work for a better future for themselves and for their children. The constant push for ideological cultivation, refinement, or education, (kyoyang in Korean), dominated discussions about how both children and adult caretakers of children should behave in everyday situations. Individuals, who engaged with these ideas daily in both private and public settings, internalized the constant need for kyoyang in their everyday lives and thus legitimized and sanctioned state control over education and socialization, physical education and public health, and helped uphold systems of surveillance and criticism. This project enters broader conversations about children and childhood in the twentieth century, Soviet influence on global socialist movements, everyday life and state-society dynamics in socialist states, and the concept of the “global Cold War” as a deeply penetrative “way of life” that shaped the everyday lived experiences of virtually everyone around the world.
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