Mythologizing History in South Korea

Abstract

The South Korea as the any other country has some nationalistic influence in history interpretation. In the question of mythologizing history the Korean nationalism uses the standard myths which we can find in the official history of any country, for example in Russia history. Some Korea historical myths are enough famous especially among Korean studies scholars. This paper attempts to find out the most wide spreading historical myths, analyze them and show their influence on the day-by-day life of Koreans. The analysis includes such myths as the myth of the very ancient history of Korean state (the myth of Dangun), the myth of the territorial ambitions, the myth of the foreign influence absence, etc. Also we pay attention to the image of enemy in Korean historical myths. We conclude that the process of mythologizing history in Korea is using for nationalism propaganda inside and outside of South Korea. The South Korean government institutions monitor all textbooks on Korean history in the goal to support the “right” interpretation of historical events.