Neither Dokdo, Nor the DDP: An Argument for Negative Hybridity

Abstract

This paper argues for a reconceptualization of hybridity. Rejecting the definition of hybridity as a ‘cultural melange’ as ideological, it reconstructs the contradiction inherent to hybridity as a dialectical opposition, and then, following the dialectical materialism of Slavoj Žižek, this paper follows this opposition through its dialectical resolution. Consequently, the model of hybridity that claims the compatibility of local and global identity is resisted in preference to a form of negative hybridity that rejects the choice between local and global identity as false. This theoretical model is played out with reference to contemporary South Korean identity, using the tension between local Korean culture and an intruding global culture to explore the contradictions that hybridity tries to contain and the motivations that give rise to them.