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Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies - Vol. 67, No. 1, pp. 316-362
Abbreviation: KSJCS
ISSN: 2586-7369 (Online)
Print publication date 28 Feb 2023
Received 13 Oct 2022 Revised 27 Jan 2023 Accepted 03 Feb 2023
https://doi.org/10.20879/kjjcs.2023.67.1.008
혼틈당선: 윤석열과 보수 재집권 분투 : <Under the Cover of Chaos>를 통해 본 제20대 대통령 선거 국면 분석
이종명*
*강원대학교 미디어커뮤니케이션학과 강사 (journaleest@outlook.com)
<Under the Cover of Chaos> in South Korea, 2022 : Conjunctural Analysis of the 20th Presidential Election
Jongmyung Lee*
*Lecturer, Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, Kangwon National University (journaleest@outlook.com)

본 연구는 그로스버그가 제안한 국면분석의 구체적 모델을 전범으로 삼아 제20대 대통령 선거 과정에서의 담론 정치를 분석한다. 보다 장기적인 ‘시대(epoch)’적 맥락과, ‘진지전’, ‘문제적 공간’의 개념들을 짚으면서 추상적 진단을 넘어선다. 비판적이고 분석적인 실천 차원의 논의로 우선 “진지천” 차원에서 정치, 경제, 문화 담론의 발화를 확인한다. 발화 주체는 홀의 <위기 관리>에서도 제안한, 정치 캠페인 수사, 언론 보도, 수용자 화답(시대적 맥락에서 독자 투고를 온라인 커뮤니티의 화답으로 대체하여)을 아우른다. 나아가 코로나19라는 국면에서 돌출된 ‘불안감’ 조장, ‘청년’, ‘젠더’ 담론에서의 ‘격리’와 ‘해체’가 “문제적 공간”에서 맥락화되는 현상을, 위기와의 접합으로 읽어낸다. 이를 통해 윤석열과 한국 보수 정치 세력의 재집권 전략을 “공정”에 대한 법과 질서 정립, “사회적 신뢰”에 대한 해체와 대체로 규정한다. 트럼프의 등장과 미국 사회의 신 보수 질서 정립이 끼친 정치적, 경제적, 문화적 영향이 여전히 드리운 현실에서, 한국 사회의 정치적 세력 교체를 넘어 새로운 담론 질서의 등장과 대두가 부각되는 작금의 상황을 국면적으로 읽어 개입하는 작업의 필요성을 개진한다.

Under the Cover of Chaos: Trump and the Battle for the American Right(2018), Lawrence Grossberg uses conjunctural analysis to diagnose the rise of Donald Trump and the new conservative discursive order in American society. Alongside his argument for the need for political intervention at the abstract level, he proposes three analytical terrains as concrete practices of conjunctural analysis. First, reading complex contexts politically in a 'war of positions'; second, mapping the topography of constituted problems in a 'problem space'; and third, articulating with the problem space by appropriating Antonio Gramsci's 'organic crisis'. This is a practice of "conjunctural thinking" as envisioned by Stuart Hall. Specifically, "war of position" reads the discursive politics of post-war conservative and progressive movements, as well as the economy and culture - particularly as they are discussed on social media. Accordingly, how "anxiety" and "hyperactivity", "isolation" and "expulsion", and "individualistic society" reminiscent of Nazism are connected in the "problem space" dimension, and how "crisis of coordination and relationships", "crisis of authority (knowledge)", and "crisis of social control" are connected in the "organic crisis" dimension. Therefore, this study focuses on discourse politics of Korea‘s 20th presidential election process by using the specific model of conjunctural analysis proposed by Grossberg. It goes beyond abstract diagnosis by pointing to the longer-term 'epoch' context, the concepts of 'problem space', and 'war of positions'. As a critical and analytical discussion at the practical level, political speech, economic, and cultural discourse at the "war of positions" level is identified. This includes political campaign rhetoric, media coverage, and audience reaction(in the context of nowadays, replacing ’readers’ contributions‘ with ’online community responses‘), as proposed in Stuart Hall's Policing the Crisis(1978). Furthermore, it reads the phenomenon of 'anxiety' promotion, 'isolation' and 'deconstruction' in 'youth' and 'gender' discourse, which have emerged in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as contextualized in 'problem space', as a conjunction with the crisis. It characterizes Yoon Suk Yeol and South Korea's conservative political résime strategies for retaking power as largely based on the establishment of law and order over "fairness" and the dismantling of "social trust." In a reality where the political, economic, and cultural impacts of the rise of Trump and the establishment of a neo-conservative order in the United States are still looming, it is necessary to read and intervene as a public intellectual in the current situation where a new discursive order is emerging beyond the change of political forces in Korean society.