An Examination of Heritage from the Perspective of Authorised Dicatorial Discourse: A Focus on the Heritage Politics during the Park Chung Hee Regime

Abstract

The overarching aim of this article is to reveal the extent to which cultural heritage is interconnected to politics, more so in the context of dictatorial rule, and how such dictatorial actions can lead to profound lasting impacts on the discourse of heritage. Many past dictators used their political powers to express and implement their interests and development in particular parts of the nation’s past. In the two case studies used in this study, we found that the politics of heritage during South Korea’s dictatorship period served a common goal and we argue that there is a need to focus on how neglecting certain sites and selecting certain sites were intentionally done to fabricate narratives about certain heritage sites and also to justify the dictator’s unorthodox assumption of political power. In order to examine how national land and national heritage became intertwined to serve political purposes, this article refers to two regions of South Korea during the Park Chung Hee regime; one neglected site and one selected site. In order to do so, we introduce and implement the theoretical framework of Authorised Dictatorial Discourse (ADD).