Abstract
This thesis investigates how the Korean national identity has been constructed in Korean culture-related texts aimed at two different groups, overseas Koreans and foreigners, by comparing Korean culture-related texts published especially after 2000s. It mainly demonstrates the interrelation between the Korean government's overseas Korean/foreigner policy and the collective/social/cultural memory building in culture-related texts. It shows that collective/social/cultural memory has been appropriated for the needs of the Korean government in the neo-liberal globalization process that has taken place in Korea. At the same time, the thesis also presents the ambiguity of the criteria which can draw a line between overseas Koreans and foreigners in recent times, because the gukmin (Nation people in Korean) as a citizenship identity is becoming reinforced (which can include both groups into the same category). However, I pose that the multicultural perspective still was not deeply considered in this transformation of the national identity. For the Korean government, both groups are still regarded as objects to be socialize into the Korean way. The most interesting finding is the ethnicized concept gukmin , which is generally deployed by appealing to ethnic attachment to the nation indirectly. Particular elements (Korean, indigenous, traditional) still prevail in most culture-related texts. With politically conservative shift trends in Korea, there was also generally found conservative reinterpretations of the collective/social/cultural memory throughout most of the culture-related texts.