Through an analysis of the ‘naisen ittai’ (Japan and Korea as one) argument published in Korea from the late 1930s to the 1940s, and of records of contemporary symposia, this paper captures the process by which language and identity were transformed into “transactionable” and calculable objects in response to the mechanization of the imperial system and the accompanying expansion of the economy. Language and identity were represented as things to be chosen or abandoned depending on the presence or absence of profit, eventually to converge into one language in one market. As the empire pushed for integration into one language, demands for equality on the part of the colonized were already and always impossible, given that they were predicated on participation in the imperial economy. This is because the impetus of the economy, which restructures all relationships based on rationality and efficiency, can be maintained while encompassing the various linguistic disparities that exist in reality.
This analysis ultimately posits the “impossibility of communication” as the cause of the cessation of the economy’s impetus. Only by assuming such an existence, can we bracket the impetus of the economy and raise the question of what cannot be reduced to the economy, that is, the ethical issues around language.

研究論文