The Donghak Peasant War: From a History of the Minjung Movement to a History of the Minjung and What Follows

Abstract

This article examines research on the Donghak Peasant War based on the theory of subjects of revolutionary change—which found active application from the 1980s to the mid-to-late 1990s—by focusing on the view of history. Research along these lines defines the minjung, which has properties of being class-coalitional, as the subject of revolutionary change that takes on both national and class contradictions. This contrasts with how the minjung, to include peasant farmers, were understood in Marxist views as requiring guidance by the more advanced classes, or other studies that follow modernization theory. However, research on the Donghak Peasant War based on the theory of subjects of revolutionary change has to date been limited to a binary view of time that divides modern from premodern, and to a binary view of space that separates the interior and exterior of a nation-state. It is difficult to adequately respond to the newly rising tasks born from modern civilization and the acceleration of globalization, to include the climate crisis, environmental problems, inequality, and discrimination, from such a Eurocentric and modernocentric perspective and a unilinear view of historical development. © 2024 The Academy of Korean Studies. All rights reserved.