KJC Korea
Journal Central

The characteristic of contemporary science and technology lies in trying to invade the human mind and body in order to change their nature. For the study of these posthuman phenomena, a fusion study of humanities and technology is needed. The preceding research involving posthumans can be categorized into four major categories, each of which could be called technocentric, deconstructive, critical and materialistic posthumanisms. Our view, which distinguishes us from these, is acquired by overlapping Foucault's archaeological periodization in history and Deleuze and Guattari’s machinism. It is the labor, life and language of the machine that replace the place after “the death of man”. Concrete and detailed analyses of this changes will be an important task afterwards.

With the advent of CRISPR-CAS9, the 3rd generation gene scissors, the question of whether genetic enhancement should be allowed or not from ethical standpoint became more crucial, as genetic enhancement through germline cell editing is now in the realm of what is viable. This paper seeks to develop the view of a restrictive, which reconciles bioliberals and conservatives, by carrying out the work of strictly distinguishing between the permissible genetic enhancement and the impermissible one. To this end, this paper will explicate why liberal eugenics should not be allowed on the basis of the notion of personal autonomy. And as an acceptable form of genetic reinforcement, it will present a state-led distribution model of natural primary goods. These models aim to promote and protect personal autonomy, thereby limiting genetic enhancement at an appropriate level.

Spinoza defined freedom as a state of internal determination and constraint as a state of external determination. In this sense, only God has freedom, and all finite beings, including humans, are cognized to lack freedom because they cannot escape external determination. According to Spinoza, however, humans can be internally determined and can achieve freedom even though difficult and rare. This paper postulates that Spinoza’s view of the freedom of finite individuals can consistently be explained through his theory of individuals. Spinoza repudiated the freedom of finite individuals because human beings are fundamentally relational and cannot escape external determination. Conversely, the probable reason that Spinoza could recognize the possibility of human freedom was that he noted that external determination, which is a fundamental condition of existence and work of finite individuals, could be understood as a constant that may enable, rather than interfere with, the internal determination of finite individuals. However, we believed that the internal determination itself of finite individuals is just a necessary condition for freedom; it is not ‘true freedom.’

Adoptee literatures have been published since the late 1990s in Scandinavia. Adoptee memoirs are different from previous adoption discourses led mainly by adoptive parents and non-adoptee writers. A small number of adoptees put great emphasis on adoptee rights movement, critical adoption studies as well as media activities to disseminate a more balanced understanding of transnational adoption at the present. When it comes to literature, several Nordic adoptees have been writing on their lives as non-Caucasian citizens living in Scandinavia. They try to reveal hidden aspects of life as adoptees, focusing their attention on everyday racism, and searching for identity, loss, and ambivalent feelings towards their birth parents and South Korea. This paper centres on conception poems written by a Danish poet named Maja Lee Langvad who writes about the transnational adoption system from an angry adoptee perspective. The pain of Korean adoptees is due to three factors: everyday racism, problematic adoption policy, and the negative effects of the adoption system in Denmark. Her poems speak for a great number of adoptees. Her poems say differently about current transnational adoption, trying to change public opinion on adoption, and subsequently encouraging better adoption politics and better reproduction policy in both South Korea and Denmark.

In the Korean-Chinese society of Yanbian(Yanji), memories of The Story of Chun- Hyang(Chunhyangjeon) , which took effect in 1956, have long been recalled. As a trace of the performance, pamphlets and casts remained, as well as several photos of the performances. Above all, people who appeared or watched the performance remained to testify. Some of the actors who participated in the performance later grew into the backbone of the Korean-Chinese theatrical world. However, the performance remained in memory, but it was only recorded faintly in the Korean-Chinese performance history. This study uncovered the substance of The Story of Chun-Hyang(Chunhyangjeon) performed by Yeonbyeongamudan in 1956, explored its meaning, and tried to identify the theatrical/historical significance of the performance as an attempt.

Anarchism and Bolshevism became mainstream in Chosun’s acceptance of communism, and they exhibited mutually combined aspects. This is a Northeast Asian phenomenon. At the beginning of the establishment of the Russian Bolshevik government, there existed an Anarcho-Bolshevik among Russians. And before the founding of the Communist Party of China, it is already established that anarchism has had a profound effect on rudimentary Bolsheviks. The first Korean labor organizations, the Korean Workers’ Association(1920) and the New Life Publisher(新生活社, 1922) of Socialism , typically show the acceptance of the early anarchism and the movement of Anarcho-Bolshevism. In addition, the Chosun Labor Mutual Association focused on the subjective awareness of the workers and the education and cultural movement based on Anarchism. On the other hand, the New Life Publisher introduces anarchism, but it focuses on Bolshevism, giving a glimpse of the difference in focusing on the working class struggle. Also, Donghak(Cheondogyo) socialism should be noted in the acceptance of Joseon. At the time, Cheondogyo critically accepted Anarchism and Bolshevism based on the philosophy of Donghak. Representative Jung Gyu-Seon asserted socialism based on the spirit of social solidarity, and insisted that the future society would be impossible to realize a communist society unless it was a communist society based on true humanity and brotherhood. The true communist society is not a property owned, but a “cultural creation act” by the homodeus. And the ideal society of humanity cannot be built unless it is a fundamental spirit based on the “affection of human relations.”

The paper is an attempt to reconstruct the voice of a subordinate who is not controlled by the patriarchal ideology, through “Pakssijeon,” one of the late Joseon female hero novels. Unlike the other researches within literary boundaries, this paper seeks to examine this novel from the perspective of physicality and sight as the filed of patriarchal power in which women as the other is compulsorily placed. If we can read the visual control and placement of the body as Park’s metaphor for power relations, Park’s various practices can also be read as a political attempt to reverse power. Meanwhile, Park also protects herself and whole family and reverse the power through the ‘heterotopia’ that one of the Foucault’s concepts to show cultural, institutional and discursive spaces that are somehow ‘other’, while at the same time bringing the batter into it to transform the status of power.

This paper is to examine the location of the exhibition hall and the geopolitical relationship between power and power included in Kim Ae-ran’s “The future of silence” and Pyun Hye-young’s “International exposition”. To this end, I will apply human-geographer Edward Relph’s theory to analyze the identity of the exhibition hall and the identity about the exhibition hall by subdividing physical environment, human activities and meaning as the components of the place identity. At this time, the sense of belonging, separated from the boundaries of insiders and outsiders, serves as an important symbol of understanding the rampant power relationship within the social structure. Examining what narrative meaning based on the real logic of capitalism and nationalism that the writer wants to reveal through his literary work is. I also try to deal with the unconsciousness and psychological reality perception of figures who interact closely with physical reality through fantasy techniques. This will be the work of analyzing the placeness of the exhibition hall represented in the literary work, taking issue with the structure of power that creates the relationship between differences in human activities, confirming the possibility of the author’s literary practice and reasons, which means the aspect of narrative reproduction from a geopolitical perspective.