KJC Korea
Journal Central

This study examines the sociocultural background of negritude by delving into Caseríos, Reggaeton, and Trigueños, which are interrelated with the racism deeply embedded in Puerto Rican society. These terms have also been discussed in relation to the ideological discourse of racial democracy, which has caused Puerto Rican people to be blind to silenced inequality and hegemonic racial policies. Caseríos, housing projects for the poor urban class, are targeted by the state - sponsored project ‘Mano Dura’. Due to the policing, control and surveillance of this anticrime project, Caseríos became perceived even more as residential communities of violence, poverty, and insecurity generally connected to the stigmatization of blackness. Reggaeton emerged as a mega hit genre of transnational Puerto Rican music in the 2000s, which in turn, drew attention to both the afrodiaspora in New York and the urban musical power in the Island. This musical genre serves to highlight the meaningfulness of black heritage in the national cultural identity of Puerto Rico. Trigueñidad has recently become a common racial cultural term that embraces a broader racial paradigm of mestizaje. This term can function as an alternative concept of blackness, but it has not yet been transformed into enough cultural politics to resist ongoing racial democracy. The three terms intrinsically address both the uprooted racism and potential methods of challenging it. This paper argues the necessity of stronger and more responsive cultural politics to defy the pervasiveness and invisibility of racial discrimination in Puerto Rico.

‘Post-memory’ is the act of remembering traumatic events in history by subsequent generations who have not had direct experiences or relations with them. For this reason, the narratives of ‘post-memory’ are considered as re-interpretations of the past deeply influenced by current perspectives and concerns. The Chilean film NO goes back to the Referendum of 1988 in order to examine the “NO campaign” which was opposed to another eight years of continuation of the Pinochet regime. Although this campaign contributed significantly to the Chilean democratization, the filmmaker does not just celebrate it: rather he attempts to cast a critical reflection on its strategies that eventually turned democracy into a “commodity” by deploying commercial language and marketing tools for characterizing and describing it. On the other hand, the Korean movie The Attorney sheds light on the story of an attorney who, during the military regime in the 1980’s, became a human rights lawyer when he tried to advocate for university students accused of violating national security law. This film reconstitutes the meaning of democracy built upon the logic of “common-sense” that privileges freedom and fundamental human rights over Statism. Despite the different historical contexts between Chile and South Korea, these two movies retell the history of a dictatorship that ended a couple of decades ago. In doing so, they raise questions about history, memory and democracy in order to deepen the understanding of current social and political circumstances while placing an emphasis on the roles and responsibilities of intellectuals during the transition to democracy and democratic consolidation.

In the 21st century there has been an explosive gain in the popularity of Korean culture, often referred to as Hallyu , which translates into 'Korean Wave'. This is especially true in Latin America, which has seen Hallyu reach enormous heights. This study investigates the Hallyu phenomenon in Mexico and Peru over a three year period (2012-2014), with the utilization of current facts and media analysis associated with Hallyu . Mexico as a nation is an important one for this study, considering it was the first country to adopt Hallyu in Latin America and still holds a strong influence in the growth and movement of Hallyu in this region. Furthermore, in recent years, Peru has seen the most growth in popularity of Hallyu in Latin America and is therefore an essential country of study. Therefore, an in depth media analysis of the Hallyu phenomenon in Peru will offer a strong case study for further progressing and extending the rise in Korean culture in the region of Latin America. The extension of Hallyu is imperative in its contribution to the ascension of Korea’s culture and national brand image.

Daehoon Ham’s novel ‘Cheongchunbo’ features a studier as the main character who majored in Russian literature and admired the culture of the Soviet Union. From his viewpoint, the novel reproduces North Korean society before and after its independence from Japan. In this regard, it shows multilayered presence related to Russian culture and Soviet Russia. Such an aspect is based on the sense of sympathy that the main character has. The sense of sympathy is originated from the main character’s admiration for the exoticism of Soviet culture which was forbidden during the late Japanese occupation. After Korea’s independence from Japan, Russian was replaced by English. Such change also occurred in the main character’s viewpoint. He underwent a change in his integrative viewpoint on Russian and Soviet under the name of Red Army. After defecting to South Korea, he began to put Russia down as a den possessed by the devil called ‘communism.’ In the meantime, Russia and Soviet have been separated from each other in ideological terms. The novel ‘Cheongchunbo’ stresses that the decisive cause of such changes is argued over trusteeship. The main character, fascinated by the presence of exotic Soviet, predicates that Soviet is a political symbol around the national division caused by the trusteeship. His change alluded to the life path of Korean authors who translated Russian literature after independence. During the Japanese occupation, Russian literature translated into Korea was a longing for forbiddance and admiration for Russia. However, the Russia presented in Daehoon Ham’s novel before and after independence implies that the romantic translation has ended.

A flow of generative change has existed in the Chinese media following political, economic, and institutional changes. Since a market system was introduced to the field of drama production, people called ‘zhipianren’ who act as government agents as well as market administrators have spontaneously emerged. The government, by granting legal qualifications and authority to these ‘zhipianren’, have institutionalized and absorbed them within the system. Through this process, the ‘drama zhipianren system’, under the unique environment of a socialist market economy, demonstrates a Chinese administrative model that effectively reveals the changing process from a direct administration by the government to indirect administration and self-censorship. Furthermore, with the widespread adoption of the internet, various types of media including grassroots media have emerged, and the participation and production activities of netizens has enabled the development of a new genre of literature called internet literature. Furthermore, some websites that functioned as platforms for video and grassroots media came to self-produce contents so as to function as media in and of themselves. Originally, the internet was cultivated as a portion of the IT industry, but when it began to function as media, forming a new media landscape, regulations and institutions were gradually established and subsequently advanced in the direction of supervision and regulation over all internet media contents. A flow of generative change in the field of media has emerged, and the pattern of generation-convergence repeats itself as the official media policies converge.

This study attempted to investigate the issue how stepmother’s narrative was transferred to <Simcheongjeon>. For this agenda, the approach of this paper is described below to determine how Bbaengdeok’s stepmother narrative was transferred episodically to <Simcheongjeon>. First, this paper started from the relation between stepmother narrative and <Simcheongjeon> affiliated with each root folk tale in Buddhist text. Among <Jeondongja>·<Bubmyodongja>·<Sayohime>· <Sunwootaeja>·<Mokryugumo>·<Wonhongjang>·<Hwangchunmuga>·<Hoynye jieun> known as root folk tale until now, this paper investigated whether <Jeondongja>·<Bubmyodongja>·<Sayohime>·<Sunwootaeja>·<Mokryugumo>· <Wonhongjang> was the root folk tale affiliated to Buddhist literature. At that point, stepmother narrative showed relation with opening eyes motive. It has been reported that the text of opening eyes in Buddhist literature is originated from the south. This paper confirmed that <Simcheongjeon>’s stepmother narrative was related to Buddhist literature originated from south. Next, this paper investigated the background of opening eyes motive of stepmother types. After entering Gyeongpan <Simcheongjeon>, it formed Bbaengdeok narrative of Wanpan <Simcheongjeon> related to Literary geography of Jeollado enjoying space of Wanpan <Simcheongjeon>. There are two evidences for this. The first one is <Woomoknangsang> which was passed down around Jeollado. In the course of sudden Buddhist folklore’s flow into the country, it is <Woomoknangsang> that combined stepmother narrative of sudden Buddhist literature with the characteristics of northern Buddhist literature which was reconstructed into son’s filial behavior of northern Buddhist literature to make father’s blinded eyes open. The other is the Buddhist trend of the late 18th Chosun when northern Buddhist literature and sudden Buddhist literature were combined. It appeared that stepmother narrative was formed in the Buddhist background of the late 18th Chosun when northern Buddhist literature and sudden Buddhist literature were combined.

This article aims to analyze the perception of Korean-Chinese in South Korea to understand the mentality of South Korean people in a multicultural society through exploring Korean films in which Korean-Chinese characters have been represented since 2000. For this purpose, Korean-Chinese characters represented in Korean Films are divided into male and female. It could be said that South Koreans are biased against Korean-Chinese, who are considered ‘others’ under the economic and cultural hierarchy. Female characters are presented as ‘pure’ and ‘frail’ in the migration narrative while male characters are ‘indecent’ and ‘brutal’ individuals in crime narrative films. Meanwhile, Haemoo [Sea fog] is a story about economically weak Koreans and Korean-Chinese who were in economical conflict with each other, but were victims of the economical restructuring systems under neo-liberalism.

This paper seeks to explore the new relationship between music and poetry established in the beginning of the Modern Era. This was a period when reading silently was the dominant culture rather than reading aloud and orality was limited due to the emergence of literacy and print culture. A poet sensitive to the characteristics of the period, Mallarmé created his own concept of music and new creative principles of poetry from it. We analyze his 『Divigation』 and letters, in particular, the "Crisis of vers", "Music and Literature", "Mystery in the letters", and "About the book." Firstly, Mallarmé connects music with the mystery and the sacred: the mystery surrounds the music and the music is oriented with the sacred. The sanctity is that of the human race and has existed within humans since the beginning. Transposing the characteristics of this music to the poetry is his first creative principle of poetry. However, Mallarmé called music a totality of relationships that exist between objects without reducing the dimension to only the instruments or the sound. His definition is abstract, regarding music as a complete rhythm, the atmosphere and the air. Secondly, we have the question of how to realize music in a poem. As the music is surrounded by the mystery, Mallarmé can transpose the sacred to a poem in mysterious ways. This leads to his second principle of poetry: make a poem as a structure. In other words, 'musically', based on the disappearance of real objects and the initiative of the poet, he created a structure with only the words. We can create an acoustic structure but Mallarmé created a visible structure to overcome the incompleteness of the sound of a word in the diffusion of print culture. In this manner, the use of silence as much as sound and the use of visual as much as aural components were introduced in poetry as important motifs and the essentials of creation. This new relationship between poetry and music and the creative principles drawn from it appear to be the areas to which attention should be focused in the research of poetry.

This article explores the fate of futurism not only by tracing the entire process from the birth and decline of Russian futurism in the early 20th century and the so-called “Korean futurism” in the early 21st century, but also by delving into how their characteristics were shaped. In the first chapter, we investigate four groups of Russian futurism — Ego-Futurism, Cubo-Futurism, Tsentrifuga, and the Mezzanine of poetry, which were born in the age of utopianism before the Revolution. In the opera Victory Over the Sun, which was the culmination of the Zaum project of Cubo-futurists, we can find the initial shortcomings at the levels of language (Kruchenykh), music (Matyushin) and decoration and costume design (Malevich). In the second chapter, we examine chronologically how the term ‘futurism’ appeared in Korean literature history. In Korea, the term ‘futurism’ was born following the naming and classification of critic Kwon Heok-Woong, not by the voluntary manifestation of experimental poets such as Hwang Byong-Seung, thus this specific situation provoked stormy polemics between critics for futurism and critics against futurism in the Korean literary world. These polemics on futurist poetics have led to considerations of the relation of criticism to poetry.

The purpose of this study is to explore the diversity of French learning materials and suggest a learning method to increase the efficiency of learning. In the first part, we explore the linguistic characteristics of the proverb. In the second part, we present the examples that can be utilized in actual learning. In terms of teaching methods, sharing a common cultural consciousness is important for language and communication between interlocutors. In view of this point, the proverb has an extremely important value in the linguistic dimension. It means that the proverb can serve as a very useful material for the comparison of the morphology and phonetics of French. The efficiency of learning can be increased if we can apply an adequate learning plan using proverbs in accordance to the learner's level and the learning contents.

There exists a general misunderstanding of the Musical as being both a dramatic genre and a musical genre. This misunderstanding lies in the fact that music fills the role of the drama. In other words, there exist a series of narrative episodes that help the development of the drama and music generates the ambience that corresponds to each episode. In this case, music is subordinated to the drama and thus becomes secondary. However, this paper seeks to show that in the Musical, musical composition is so strongly linked to the development of the drama that it is through the musical development that the drama unfolds. This paper seeks to explore this view through one of the most successful musicals of our time, Les Misérables. A musical adapted from a novel is not the retrenchment of a series of episodes from the original novel. The process of dramatizing the novel compels the musical creators to observe what to draw out as a dramatic action. The interesting points of a musical consist of how the musical creator has reflected his understanding of the fiction through the composition of the music. This is why this paper has created a table analyzing the forty musical compositions in Les Misérables. This table is meant to visualize the musical motifs employed in this play in order to explain the relationship between the musical composition and the development of the drama. The theme of Les Misérables lies in the transformation of Jean Valjean. His change includes the process of transformation from a thief to finding Jesus and his denial of being a sinner to his confessions of sinning. This paper explores the transformation of the dramatic action of Jean Valjean, which is symbolized by such themes as Misery, Love and Name established in musical form. The dramatic conflict between Jean Valjean and Javert as well as between Jean Valjean and Thénardier is also explored through the composition of music. The success of Les Misérables lies in its successful constitution of music that embodies the in depth interpretation of the original play.

This paper introduces symbols from Ghana, the ‘Adinkra’, and expands upon the concepts associated with it. In other words, the world view, values and scalability that appear to form philosophical thoughts in everyday life. ‘Adinkra’ are symbols from Ghana in West Africa. Adinkra means ‘goodbye’ or ‘farewell’. There are some 400 Adinkra symbols, but the meanings of the symbols have been lost. The first book on Adinkra is ‘The Adinkra Dictionary’ (1998) by W. Bruce Willis. Adinkra is related to the Ghanaian culture, and represents concepts such as philosophical ideology, history, historical figures, myths, legends, animals, plants, etc. In the old days, because of its meaning-‘goodbye’ or ‘farewell’- Adinkra was generally used for funerals. But today, Adinkra is utilized in a full range of cultural events and activities. Each of the ‘Adinkra’ has various meanings. According to Willis, Adinkra is ever-evolving and constantly expanding. As a matter of fact, Adinkra continues to expand, evolve and develop. Nevertheless, no books have been published on Adinkra since Bruce Willis (5 May 2016 to the present). Adinkra provides insights into the rich philosophical, educational, and historical significance of Africa. Therefore, Adinkra requires evolution, expansion, and research. In this study, we will examine the Adinkra, divided into four categories. The first is related to God and the powers, the second is related to moral education. The third symbolizes ‘love’ and ‘friendship’. and lastly, the fourth is ‘life’ and ‘death’.

Since the 2000's, interest toward Africa in Korea has increased rapidly. Korea's interest in Africa began in the second half of the 1960’s. However, this interest in the 1960’s was motivated by political and diplomatic necessity at the time rather than the needs of indigenous groups in Africa. Korea had to oppose North Korea’s diplomatic expansion in Africa to gain the support of international organizations like the United Nations. This interest in Africa motivated by diplomatic needs vanished quickly after the end of the cold war in the 1990’s. Authentic Korean interest in Africa began to emerge in the 2000’s. Korea's rising international status based on economic development led to a natural interest in Africa, which was the last frontier on earth. As a result, African studies in Korea increased significantly after 2010. The increase in the number of theses, articles and books was remarkable from 2010-2016, in comparison with 1957-2010. In spite of the increase in the quantity of thesis, articles, and books, the problem with Korea’s African studies is above all, its preponderance. Over 75% of thesis and 70% of articles are concentrated in the domain of politics and economics. This reflects the fact that Korea’s interest in Africa is based on short term political and economic interest, indicating that Korea’s African studies did not deviate from the rudimentary phase in its quantity and quality. Another problem with Korea’s African studies is the lack of integration of different types of research. African studies in Korea has three components, government funded research centers, university laboratories and individual researchers. The government funded research centers focus on the overview of African nations and their political and economic information. University laboratories mainly perform research on the theoretical aspects of politics, economics, human sciences and culture in Africa. Individual researchers are concerned with various categories. However, these three groups have failed to achieve a synergic effect on African studies in Korea and most of the research on Africa does not extend beyond each academic area. To overcome this problem, first of all, a live exchange may be necessary between domestic researchers.

This paper examines why Japan’s nation branding strategy is not working in South Korea in spite of expanding relations between Korea and Japan. Japan has successfully managed its national reputation, which altered its image around the world. However, Japan’s nation-image in South Korea has not kept up with its efforts internationally. Political and economic interactions between Korea and Japan have increased throughout the past decades since the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1965. Also, the normalization of cultural-social relations emerged after the Korean government policy restricting Japanese popular culture was removed in the 1990s and overseas travel was liberalized in 1989. In spite of the improvement in politico-cultural-social relations, trust-building efforts still stagnate between the two countries. This paper discusses the reasons behind this phenomenon and provides some suggestions to solve this issue.

One of central issues in the Literature and Science discourses during the Victorian era is the relation of physiology to psychology. Many thinkers tackle the question of whether or not psychic phenomena can be reducible to their physiological bases. For instance, Victorian physiologist William Benjamin Carpenter claims that there should be a boundary between physiological and psychological qualities. Yet, his contemporary writer Grant Allen contends for the reduction of psychology into physiology. In the essay, I discuss Grant Allen’s work Physiological Aesthetics (1877) so as to eventually problematize his physiological reductionism. I especially highlight the paradox of his physiological aesthetics. In order to clarify my argument, I introduce two concepts: evolutionary aesthetics and physiological reductionism. On the one hand, Allen argues for the development of aesthetic appreciation. The gradual evolution from gaudy to serene colors, for instance, reflects the fine differentiation of sensory organs. He believes that the existence of varied aesthetic pleasures corresponds to the evolution of sensory nerve structures. Nonetheless, Allen ironically gives more weight to the commonality of aesthetic experiences than to this teleological ordering of aesthetic experiences. He argues that there is no fundamental difference among humans in terms of their aesthetic assessments. Furthermore, there is even no essential distinction among plants, animals, and humans in light of their aesthetic appraisals, he states firmly. Although he asserts the gradual advance of aesthetic feelings caused by the intricacy of nervous systems, he simultaneously trivializes the evolution of aesthetic appraisal. In the essay, I highlight this paradox in Allen’s physiological aesthetics. It should be underscored, lamentably enough, that Allen seeks biological purity by erasing fine lines among physiology, psychology, and sociality. He estranges aesthetic experiences from subjective variations and their socio-cultural contexts. He makes great efforts to eliminate individual differences and socio-cultural specificities in order to extremely biologize aesthetic experiences. Hence, Allen’s physiological aesthetics is marked as the politics of physiological purification.