이 논문의 목적은 한국의 동아시아론에 관한 지식사회학적 분석을 통해 동아시아론의 의의를 해명하는 데 있다. 한국에서 동아시아론은 근 20년 동안 여러 학문 분야에서 논의되어 왔다. 그 까닭은 동아시아가 지리적 범주를 지시하는 것을 넘어 다양한 문제의식과 연결되었기 때문이다. 동아시아론에서 동아시아는 지역 범주이자 지적 지평이자 문명권이자 경제적 권역으로서의 의미를 가지며 다양하게 활용되었다. 그러나 그 결과 동아시아론은 내적 논리를 잃고 모호해지고 말았다. 따라서 이 논문은 동아시아론의 인식론적 토대를 묻고 동아시아론의 발생 배경을 분석해 현재 상황에서 동아시아론의 필요성을 검토한다. 아울러 이 논문은 동아시아를 번역공간으로 정의하고, 세 가지 수준에서 동아시아론의 방향을 모색한다. 첫째, 동아시아론은 서양 중심적 지식 체계를 극복하고 세계체제의 주변 사이의 번역을 기도해야 한다. 둘째, 동아시아론은 동아시아 역내의 타국의 지식계와의 상호 번역에 나서야 한다. 셋째, 동아시아론은 한국의 지식계 안에서 내부 번역의 과정을 거쳐야 한다. 이러한 과정을 거쳐야 한국의 동아시아론은 사상적 원리성을 벼리면서, 타국의 지식계에 번역될 만한 가치를 지닐 수 있을 것이다.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of the discourse of East-Asia by analyzing the discourse of East-Asia in Korea through the perspective of sociology of knowledge. The discourse of East-Asia has seen growth in various academic fields in the last 20 years in Korea, as East-Asia indexes not a mere geographical notion but a field that forms links between diverse problematics. East-Asia in the East-Asia discourse has been used as a regional category, an intellectual horizon, a civilization and economic bloc. However, the discourse of East-Asia lost its ideational cohesion and its argument became ambiguous. This paper examines the need for the discourse of East Asia today by questioning the epistemological foundations of the discourse of East-Asia as well as analyzing its origin. Furthermore, this research defines East Asia as a space of translation and explore the direction for speech-East Asia at three levels. First, the discourse of East-Asia must overcome the Eurocentric order of knowledge and make a commitment to the act of translation between the peripheral regions. Second, the discourse of East-Asia has to consider the mutual translation between intellectual spheres of East-Asian countries. Third, the discourse of East-Asia has to be translated between different academic fields within Korea. Only by going through such a process, the discourse of East-Asia in Korea may have ideological foundation and deserves to be translated into other languages.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of the discourse of East-Asia by analyzing the discourse of East-Asia in Korea through the perspective of sociology of knowledge. The discourse of East-Asia has seen growth in various academic fields in the last 20 years in Korea, as East-Asia indexes not a mere geographical notion but a field that forms links between diverse problematics. East-Asia in the East-Asia discourse has been used as a regional category, an intellectual horizon, a civilization and economic bloc. However, the discourse of East-Asia lost its ideational cohesion and its argument became ambiguous. This paper examines the need for the discourse of East Asia today by questioning the epistemological foundations of the discourse of East-Asia as well as analyzing its origin. Furthermore, this research defines East Asia as a space of translation and explore the direction for speech-East Asia at three levels. First, the discourse of East-Asia must overcome the Eurocentric order of knowledge and make a commitment to the act of translation between the peripheral regions. Second, the discourse of East-Asia has to consider the mutual translation between intellectual spheres of East-Asian countries. Third, the discourse of East-Asia has to be translated between different academic fields within Korea. Only by going through such a process, the discourse of East-Asia in Korea may have ideological foundation and deserves to be translated into other languages.

discourse of East-Asia, space of translation, ideological foundation, modernity