ABSTRACT
The Chosun ones: towards an incarnational theology of revolution Through literature, art, song and ritual, the DPRK meticulously embeds the childhood lives of its leaders in the national consciousness. Imitating the medieval lives of saints, and apocryphal infancy narratives of Christ, the childhoods of the Great and Dear Leaders – known respectively as “Immortal History” and “Immortal Leadership” – are key exempla for the intergenerational transmission of revolutionary ideology. 2 Infused with mythic signifi cance, these stories validate dynastic rule while offering instruction to youth about ideal lives to be emulated. Saints in waiting, the young Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il exude revolutionary precocity, rebuking elders with words of insight and deeds of virtue, demonstrating a prodigious aptitude for strategy, anti-imperialism, socialism and Juche. Much detail is mythologised or consists of outright fabrication, refl ecting the state’s determination to maintain authorial control over all aspects of North Korea’s cultural and symbolic landscape, inhabiting the imaginations of its citizens from cradle to grave.
