Topological Thinking for a Paradigm Shift in Korean Studies

This article is a clinical trial of the humanities with topological thinking, a derivative of topology, aiming for a paradigm shift. The main idea is that topological thinking in philosophy precedes any topology theory in mathematics. Originating from geometry, topology has been applied to many academic fields where it is considered to have played a pivotal role. This experimental case study of topological thinking for Korean Studies creatively deals with potential factors and taxonomy which come from objective and subjective accounts and keep trying the untorn homological movement. This article primarily approaches narrative topology as a methodology by which numerous barriers or restrictions can be removed to establish a new paradigm. It presupposes that Korean ancestors used this concept ever since their existence, though they did not use the exact same term. Although this is only applied to Korean Studies in this article, it shows that generalized topological thinking can be applied to all humanities beyond Western deconstructionism or topological psychology that occupies only a subfield. In this way I journey from topology in mathematics via topological thinking in philosophy to my final destination of topological Korean Studies, gaining a competitive advantage among the heavily competitive field of East Man Studies. Where this topological Korean Studies aims to reach in the end would meet the Korean identity in its making which has gone through all the subjective and objective accounts by another narrative topology of this writing. That would be a unique specialty which is neither Chinese nor Western but has been incessantly coming down independently. So the topological thinking proves itself to have been a kind of Korean identity.