민족과 국가의 대위법 —‘대칭국가’와 ‘식민국가’ —

초록

The limited sovereignty of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea allowed a nationalistic struggle for sovereignty to persist. Having been established upon the principle that building a new state must be at the hands of the Korean nationals, the Provisional Government had considerable authority. Being imagined as a state founded upon resistance, and only having semi-sovereignty, the Provisional Government was essentially a semi-state. It was also a symmetrical state, insofar as it attempted to realize its aspirations based on a model of symmetry which referred back to the colonial state. As a non-sovereign modern state, the polity administered by the Japanese Governor-General of Korea had great state capacity, but very limited state autonomy. To resolve this problem, considerable power was given to the Governor-General, while proportional representation and authority to assist in legislation were granted to the Central Council (中樞院), which was a consultative body to the Governor- General. State autonomy was thus reinforced and the “state effect” was significantly enhanced. Colonial Korea had an inbuilt dilemma, contrasting separation from and unity with the Empire. Koreans of the colonial period were citizens of two distinct political entities: the symmetrical state and the colonial state. The Korean public in general were both “nationals” of the symmetrical state and “residents” of the colonial state. The former had to do with the imagined community of “nation” and the latter with a sense of belonging to the “imperial subjects” of the Japanese Empire. Here, the counterpoint of “nation” and “state” becomes clear. Neither the nation nor the state was dominated by or subjugated to the other. The symmetrical state and the colonial state were effectively a fateful counterpoint as the political subjects of nation and state.

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