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영어

In 1960~70s, when Korean society was filled with longing for being modernized country, Ham Seok-heon was a rebel of the time, who criticized Western civilization view itself which distinguished ‘undeveloped’ from ‘developed’ by material civilization. Unlike other intellectuals who were overwhelmed by modern civilization, introducing the West as being universal or standard, following it, Ham Seok-heon, while traveling to the West, met the capitalist modern civilization the West built with a critical eye. He recognized a trip as an act of crossing differences between ‘You and I’ and ones between ‘These people and Those people’. It was an experience of looking for ‘I’ deeper by looking at ‘You’. He visited America and Europe with a critical attitude toward western material civilization, but after seeing it himself, he gave an ambivalent response. He felt and criticized avaricious capitalism through the trip and recognized that behind spotlessness of material civilization, there was violent relationship between the center and surroundings, in which the West left dirtiness of material civilization with so-called underdeveloped country of non-western areas. On the other hand, he envied America and Europe their comfortableness and richness, showing a desire to imitate and learn ‘steadiness’ under the spiritual base. Sometimes, he expressed such a desire in a vagarious way like imaging a glorious past of the Korean people, seeing the broad plain of America. This reflected the post-colonial period’s intellectuals‘ psychological complex. Every time he crossed borders, he criticized contradiction of civilization that humans themselves made a boundary of discrimination. While he intensely criticized nationalism, he wanted the Korea to be strong nation in religious and ethical aspects. He emphasized that the Korean people should be at the head of making new world history as a religious and ethical subject by throwing away western old civilization, not want to be a developed country by just accepting western civilization resulting in imperialism. It showed trauma and distinctive healing method of the Post-colonial period’s Korean intellectuals.