First Advisor

Vandy Kanyako

Term of Graduation

Summer 2025

Date of Publication

8-11-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.) in Conflict Resolution

Department

Conflict Resolution

Language

English

Subjects

conflict, generation, identity, korea, tension, trauma

Physical Description

1 online resource (viii, 83 pages)

Abstract

This paper analyzes how traumatic events that have been repeated in modern Korean history have affected each generation's identity and emotional structure, and how intergenerational conflicts arise, are structured, and reproduced. This study divides the groups of people born in the period from "The Liberation" in 1945 to 2025 into four generations: the Industrialization Generation, the Democratization Generation, the Capitalist Generation, and the Isolation Generation. Each generation has remembered major historical events such as the Korean War, the Gwangju Democratization Movement, the IMF foreign exchange crisis, the Sewol ferry and the Itaewon disaster in a unique way, thereby forming an emotional structure and collective identity.

My theoretical framework consists largely of two axes. First, I examine how to understand 'how individual generations formed their identity.' Karl Mannheim's generational theory and Strauss-How's generational cycle theory were applied to lay the foundation for generational division, and Jeffrey Alexander's social trauma theory and Dominic LaCapra's trauma memory theory explained how the painful collective experiences experienced by generations form emotional structures and are internalized to identity. Furthermore, Jerome Bruner and Paul Ricohr's narrative composition theory provides a key framework for understanding the process by which these trauma experiences go beyond mere memory dimensions to create generation-specific narrative structures and world perceptions. These theories reveal that generational identity is constructed not just in the passage of time, but in repetitive and shared traumatic events and the way they are interpreted.

Second, how the axis works as a theory for understanding and converting generational conflicts. This axis was organized around the theory of relationship interpretation. These theories provide a methodological possibility to transform the incomprehensibility and disconnection arising from differences in emotional structures and memory methods between generations through mutual understanding and ethical dialogue. By combining these two axes, this study aims to look at the formation of generational identity and the occurrence and transition process of intergenerational conflict.

In particular, the modern political trauma of the Yoon Suk Yeol government's declaration of martial law in 2024 was used as an application case, and differences in interpretation of memories and emotional responses by each generation were compared and analyzed. The industrialization generation responded with a stability-seeking attitude based on order and nationalism, the democratization generation responded from the perspective of justice and moral responsibility, the capitalist generation responded with system distrust and individualistic cynicism, and the isolation generation responded with emotion-based empathetic politics and digital mourning culture. This study shows that these differences in responses are not merely explained by differences in positions, but stem from differences in narrative memory, emotional structure, and experience-based interpretation frameworks formed by each generation.

This paper does not reduce intergenerational conflict to mere differences in political orientation or values, but rather interprets it as a structural disconnection in interpretation, stemming from divergent emotional frameworks and modes of memory shaped by each generation's shared traumatic experiences. This shows that conflict is not just a problem to be overcome or eliminated, but a complex problem in which different memories and emotions collide and new social meanings and ethical relationships must be reconstructed. Conflict between generations stems from differences in how they view the past and acts as a key factor deeply involved in the formation of each generation's identity and worldview. Therefore, conflict can be understood as a new starting point for exploring the possibility of mutual understanding among members of society, not just a division.

Hence, this study suggests that through three practical interventions: restorative justice, emotional literacy, and the construction of an intergenerational public sphere, this structure of non-interpretability can be transformed into a space of meaningful dialogue. This is not just aimed at generational integration, but a process of converting each other's memories and emotions into understandable narratives, weaving them into ethically acceptable forms, and the practice of social imagination to use conflict as a starting point for community maturity.

For South Korean society to move toward a healthier democracy and a more cohesive community, it is essential not to simply problematize or morally condemn intergenerational conflict. Instead, there must be public mechanisms and discursive structures that connect and render interpretable the differing modes of memory and emotional frameworks of each generation. This study aims to make a meaningful academic and social contribution to the discourse on memory politics and generational conflict in Korea by presenting the theoretical foundations and practical case analyses that support this approach.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44112

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