Domination through subordination: Yi Kwangsu's collaboration in colonial Korea

Abstract

This article examines Yi Kwangsu's writings, which arguably referred not only to his longing for national independence in colonial Korea but also to his collaboration with Japan. Specifically, by juxtaposing Yi's political thoughts with Nietzsche's then-popular thesis on domination, I present the following two claims. First, Yi retains the politics of domination that provides epistemological coherence to his ideas, ranging from the advocacy of the reconstruction of the nation to the assertion of voluntary subordination to the Japanese Empire. Second, Yi's colonial collaboration, embodied in his aspiration for an empire, demonstrates the need for overcoming the simple anitimonies between resistance and collaboration on the one hand and between nationalism and anti-nationalism on the other hand.