Citation

Ban Y. Cult. Stud. Crit. Methodol. 2019; 19(5): 373-383.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1532708618819632

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this article, I observe the way Bongha, a small town of South Korea, constructs the tourist experience, using continually maintained silence regarding certain aspects of the past. The town became famous after the former president Moo-hyun Roh committed a politically controversial suicide in 2009. Then Bongha serves as memory-dispositif, putting forward memory aids for Roh that are chosen to highlight his life selectively. Visitors participate in this covert silence by coordinating their behavior into unscripted, but noticeable norms. Touring Bongha brings one into an encounter with mediated memory, and the mourners atone and engage in a pilgrimage to this remote site, full of pregiven memories of Roh, which caused them a sense of indebtedness. © 2018 SAGE Publications.

Language: en

Keywords

ethnography; collective memory; death & media; media & tourism