KJC Korea
Journal Central

This paper presents a discourse-based analysis of Korean Multiple Subject Constructions (henceforth, MSCs). In our analysis, we support the view that there is no case stacking in the MSCs since Korean case markers are not always direct morphological realizations of case assignment, but they often reflect certain information structure roles (e.g. topic or focus). In analyzing two types of Korean MSCs (i.e. descriptive verb construction and psych verb construction), we take a stand against the popular view that a MSC is a single semantic phenomenon. Rather, adopting the well-known hypothesis that prosody is an important factor to determine the discourse roles of arguments, we suggests here that a MSC can have multiple readings with reference to the prosodic features of the MSC. In particular, when a focal stress falls on the first DP of the MSC, the other unfocalized DP cannot be treated as subject. Instead, we propose that the second DP of the MSC can be analyzed as a VP-internal complement. This is clearly distinct from the traditional analysis, where the second DP of the MSC is always regarded as subject. After all, there is no uniform theory to capture all the grammatical phenomena of Korean MSCs.

The purpose of this study is to categorize daily activities by level of perceived challenge and skill in the four-channel flow model and to identify the differences in terms of frequency and level of flow experience between leisure and work activities. Text Message Experience Sampling Method(TM-ESM) was developed to collect data using a mobile phone interface instead of the traditional Experience Sampling Form(ESF). The present study partially supported that flow experiences were more likely to occur in work than in leisure. The results also found that there were statistically significant differences in level of overall flow experience between work and leisure activities. After the closer examination of these results, the analysis revealed that it could be differentiated by conditions of perceived skills and challenges. Therefore, results imply that level of skills and challenges is important factors for frequency and level of flow experiences.

The paper aims to investigate transient labor pattern of young South Korean women by employing qualitative method, interwoven with the analysis of theoretical texts from Judith Butler and Cho Han Haejoang, and historiographic texts that show how female workers integrated into Korea's patriarchal labor market. Women's transient labor is analyzed though different historical figurations of 'working' women, who constantly 'do' gender, conforming to the State's nation-family trope. With 1988 Equal Employment Law, accompanied by Seoul Olympics, the changes seemed to appear, however, contemporary corporate culture continues to marginalize female workers through taboo and sanctions, which shaped the performativity of idealized working women. In turn, office girls reenact the traditional feminine ideal, or become 'flowers' in the offices. Some young Korean women enjoy relative freedom from being bread-winner and are allowed to pursue alternative career. Yet, the alleged female empowerment under recent regime of neoliberal self-portfolioization and so-called 'spec' accumulation only helps the reproduction of female subalternity, which leads to the question of female education and its unfulfilled promises.

Exploring the cross-racialization of bodies of African American and Filipino American men in the first half of the twentieth-century United States, this essay first examines American modern history in which both ethnic groups were culturally stigmatized as sexually deviant. I also consider how ethnic male authors examine such racist discursive strategies. In doing so, the present study critiques heteronormative impulse and homophobic repulsion embedded in the masculinist anti-racist cultural politics advanced by Fanon, Du Bois, and Bulosan. This essay then addresses Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters (1990), written in the late twentieth century, in order to explore how white racist discourses such as lynching narrative have been adapted and applied to global culture in the postmodern era. My discussion of Hagedorn’s novel also explores the way the author interrogates masculinist bias of anti-racist cultural politics.

This paper examines the causal relationship between political regime and civic engagement in Korea between 1945 and 2012 using a logistic growth curve model derived from population ecology of organization. This paper focuses on the effect of political regime on the growth of civic organizations in number, fully taking into account the interplay among civic engagement, political development, and economic development. This paper finds that military regime suppressed initial growth potential of civic organizations expected under the earlier semi-democratic regime while the democratic regime revives the growth of civic organizations that surpasses the level expected under the first regime. This paper also finds that some types of civic organizations do not strictly follow this general pattern, either showing a greater growth potential under the military regime than under the semi-democratic regime or a growth pattern that is neutral to regime characteristics. Under the assumption that current regime would persist, this paper estimates the future growth trend and predict that total number of civic organizations in Korea will continue to increase in years, yet this paper also finds the specific future growth trend will vary based on the type of organization.

Many of the best-known plays written by Peter Shaffer (1926-2016) often deal with religion and faith in mythical and historical contexts. These themes culminate in the works known as his trilogy: The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), Equus (1973), and Amadeus (1980). In addition to the thematic similarity, they have other literary features in common. Structurally, all of these plays consist of two acts; also, they all elaborate on two contrastive characters─Pizarro and Atahuallpa in The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Dr. Dysart and Alan in Equus, and Salieri and Mozart in Amadeus respectively. The structural similarity of the plays is closely related to their thematic affinity. The first act of each play draws upon the meeting of a god figure, while the second act is mainly concerned about the death of the god. In Shaffer’s trilogy, therefore, the issue of worship toward the Other stands out among others. The three plays explore why one searches for an object of worship and how to worship it. In this sense, Shaffer’s trilogy can be read as a response to the existential and psychological inquiry into the nature of worship toward the Other.