KJCKorea
Journal Central

This article examines the portrayal of 'community' orientation among elderly men in Korean TV dramas, movies, and novels in the 2020s. It reconsiders the social perception of elderly men in Korea in the 21st century and examines their role as community members. The portrayal of Korean elderly men in TV dramas, movies, and novels in the 2020s often includes dementia, a common illness among elderly individuals. However, instead of viewing dementia as a tragic disease, these works depict it as an opportunity for elderly men to rebuild their lives in old age. In the TV drama Navillera (Like a Butterfly), dementia becomes a catalyst for intergenerational understanding and care, fostering cooperation between the young and old. The drama portrays a sense of "solidarity" within the community that is restored through collaboration between different generations. In the movie Remember, the elderly male protagonist seeks personal revenge before losing all his memories due to dementia. This storyline serves as a reminder of the fading interest within the community regarding the liquidation of pro-Japanese groups from the colonial era. The protagonist's dementia symbolizes the disappearing memory of the community, embodying the sense of responsibility that elderly men feel towards their community. In the novel Aboeji-eui Haebang-ilji (A Journal of Liberation for My Father), dementia directly leads to the death of the protagonist's father. However, after his father's death, the protagonist resolves his long-standing disillusionment with his father. The novel emphasizes the importance of the community-based ideology of "altruism" that the father practiced through the process of mourning. In the 2020s, Korean pop culture contents are encouraging elderly men, who have dedicated their lives to building strong family communities, to seek a larger community beyond their families. As they enter a new stage of life, elderly men are striving to find a renewed self-identity and regain vitality

Engaging in a critical study of the Orientalist interpretation of Latin America in Korean society, this research aims to examine the perspective of understanding the Andean region. To achieve this, the study introduces anthropologist Orin Starn's concept of 'Andeanism' and analyzes the discrepancy between how an outside observer perceives Andean society and the actual reality of the Andean peasant community. Andeanism refers to the perception that the Andean region and its inhabitants still maintain the communitarianism of the Inca Empire, which is based on reciprocal relationships. This perception, which is ahistorical and fixed to a specific place, shares similarities with the colonial cognitive framework described by Said in Orientalism. It dichotomizes the Andean region from the outer region and otherizes the Andean region by associating it solely with the Inca past and the specific place of the Andean highlands. This study aims to analyze the changing patterns of peasant communities in rural Andean society in Peru, using Starn's concept of Andeanism. By examining the reality of peasant communities undergoing internal and external changes through constant interaction with the outside society, the study aims to bridge the gap between the Orientalist interpretation of Andean society and reality

At the impasse of critical theory, a group of critics has turned their attention to the plurality of the world, exploring possibilities beyond traditional criticism. The concept of Pluriverse serves as both a theoretical framework and a practical discourse that seeks to encompass these alternative possibilities. Coined from the words "plural" and "universe," it critiques the illusion of the "One World World" created by the Global North's perception of itself as universal. The Pluriverse aims to restore the realities of other beings in the world by repositioning humans as interdependent entities within a relational world. This study explores the potential of multiple worlds through an analysis of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (dir. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022). By focusing on an Asian woman in the US, who finds herself trapped in a complex situation with no apparent solution, the film challenges the confinement of the multiverse within the digital realm and its capture by the dominant logic of the modern world. What is crucial in this process is not the desire and effort to be part of the “One World World.” Instead, the film emphasizes that the possibility of creating a Pluriverse can be realized by reestablishing relationality and demonstrating care for others.