Spatializing collective memory: The idea of home and the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum

Abstract

Focusing on the idea of home, this article investigates collective memory embodied in the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul, South Korea. Centering ‘comfort women’s’ trauma and resistance, it analyzes the museum’s memory narrative and spatial strategy, which guide visitors through an empathic journey from past to present, memory to action. I first define the museum’s site-specificity, examining how the idea of home emerged from its construction history. Thereafter, I analyze the museum’s spatial paradigm of collective memorialization through the lens of Gaston Bachelard’s interpretation of a house. Exploring visitors’ spatial awareness of ‘comfort woman’ victims, I argue that the museum, combining a metaphor of home with the victims’ memory, builds a strong emotional connection to the victims and thereby encourages visitors to act on their behalf.