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This paper examines the ideological perspective of "Forgiveness and Responsibility" that emerged in the later years of Ishimure Michiko (1927–2018). Ishimure centered her literary work on "Minamata disease," a symbol of the darker aspects of Japan's period of high economic growth, and engaged in a spiritual confrontation with the violence of modern civilization. This study highlights her experiences and memories during the struggle surrounding Minamata disease. After first encountering Minamata disease patients in 1959, Ishimure spent many years alongside them. During this time, she observed disputes over monetary compensation, the internal divisions among patients and their families, and conflicts within the local community. Additionally, she was troubled by the violence of the modern medical system, particularly the autopsies conducted on deceased patients. This led her to feel profound despair toward the spiritual emptiness of contemporary urban civilization, which she witnessed firsthand at the site of the struggle. When the psychological suffering from these experiences reached its peak, she began to perceive the "soul" not just as a metaphysical concept, but as a tangible spiritual "reality." It is from this realization that the seeds of "forgiveness and responsibility" seem to have emerged. The attitude of "forgiveness and responsibility," which encapsulates Ishimure's late-period thought, was shaped by the experiences and memories she gathered from the Minamata struggle. It served as a means to shield herself from the "grudge" that plagued her and as a way to continue her spiritual confrontation with modern violence. By contrasting the beauty of the non-modern world with the harsh realities faced by Minamata disease patients, Ishimure created a significant political tension. However, this paper argues that in her later years, Ishimure eased this political tension by framing the Minamata struggle as a matter of the "soul," portraying the victims as moral and aesthetic symbols, and systematizing these concepts into the philosophy of "forgiveness and responsibility."

A Study of Korean Seasonal Workers in 1970s Okinawa: From the Perspective of the Transnational Subaltern

LEE KWON HEE | 2026, 77 | pp.391~418 | number of Cited : 0

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This study reinterprets the experiences of Korean seasonal workers who migrated to Okinawa in the 1970s through the lens of the transnational subaltern. It argues that these workers should not be viewed merely as foreign laborers but as transnational subalterns within Japan. By examining the structural conditions of Okinawa—marked by military control, economic marginalization, and chronic labor shortages—alongside South Korea's labor export policies during its developmental dictatorship, this article situates Korean seasonal migration within a broader transnational and historical context. Methodologically, the study combines historical analysis with a close reading of Kim Jeong-han's short story "A Letter from Okinawa," treating the literary text as a space where subaltern experiences, often overlooked in official records, become partially visible. The analysis reveals that seasonal migration to Okinawa was not aimed at social mobility or permanent settlement; instead, it constituted a cyclical and expendable form of labor deployment within a unique context of the Japanese state. Although Korean seasonal workers operated within Japanese territory and under Japanese administrative control, they were not recognized as subjects of civic rights or institutional protection by either Japan or South Korea. In this regard, they held a status distinct from both domestic workers and established ethnic minorities, functioning instead as labor subjects intended for mobilization, consumption, and disposal. Additionally, the interaction between the seasonal worker Bokjin and the former comfort woman Sanghae-daek in Kim's narrative highlights a historical continuity between wartime forced mobilization and postwar labor migration. This connection emphasizes Okinawa's significance as a site where transnational subalterns—colonial subjects, military laborers, comfort women, and postwar migrant workers—have been concentrated across various historical periods. By conceptualizing Korean seasonal workers as transnational subalterns within Japan's internal framework, this study challenges nation-centered perspectives on labor migration and enhances our understanding of subalternity, mobility, and historical continuity in East Asian modernity.

Earth Consciousness as Reflected in Kim Ji-Ha’s Philosophy of Life and Its Significance

Lee Sun-Hee | 2026, 77 | pp.419~445 | number of Cited : 0

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This study aims to analyze Kim Ji-ha's life philosophy, focusing on his reflections on the Earth and interpreting the Earth consciousness embedded within, along with its significance. It examines how Kim's Earth consciousness is articulated into a coherent logic within the framework of his life thought. By comparing it with the perspectives of Bruno Latour and Dipesh Chakrabarty, the study clarifies the distinctive features of Kim's understanding of the Earth. Kim Ji-ha's life philosophy, which deepens ecological thinking, reveals several forms of Earth consciousness. First, Kim expands his ethical horizon beyond a morality confined to human life, embracing a view that encompasses cosmic life. In this epistemic widening, consciousness of the Earth becomes a crucial medium of thought. He creatively reinterprets Gaia theory, which views the Earth as a living organism, and by conceptualizing life as the flow of gi (氣), he transforms the Earth from a mere physical object of knowledge into a cultural and discursive concern. Furthermore, by incorporating an Earth-system engineering perspective, he broadens a viewpoint that had previously remained within human society, deepening it into a cosmic life philosophy. As a result, through a re-conceptualization of humanity, he emphasizes an Earth ethics of Mosim (serving with reverence) and Salim (enlivening). In contrast to Latour and Chakrabarty, who perceive the Earth and humanity as separable entities, Kim regards the Earth and humanity as relational beings bound in an inseparable nexus. He positions the Earth as an interlocutor of resonance and communication, underscoring the ecological-ethical subject. Kim Ji-ha's Earth consciousness possesses a discursive contemporaneity, anticipating the problem-consciousness prevalent in posthumanist debates and Anthropocene discourse. It is particularly future-oriented, recognizing the Earth through a lens of convergence and integration—overcoming disciplinary compartmentalization by combining reason, emotion, and spirituality, while fusing thought, science, and religion. His approach to the Earth as a living being—granting spirituality to its materiality and seeking to Mosim and serve it—holds significant value as an ecological ethic. Regardless of whether its factuality or practicability can be fully validated, it renews the understanding of the Earth, which has often been treated solely as an object of reason and science, and calls for an active transformation of consciousness aimed at alleviating the current crisis.

Ecofeminist Possibilities and Limitations of Animal Discourse Films in Korea since the Mid-2010s

JEONG SAE BYEOL , Jung Soowan | 2026, 77 | pp.447~475 | number of Cited : 0

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Care as the Frontline of Value Regimes: The Political Economy of Care in the Planetary Capitalocene

Yong Taek Jeong | 2026, 77 | pp.477~509 | number of Cited : 0

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The main arguments of this study are as follows. First, the planetary Capitalocene is not merely an era in which capitalism has expanded to a global scale, but a field of conflict where Capital’s universal history (History 1) and plural histories (History 2s), constituted by the politics of human and non-human attribution, constantly interrupt and disturb each other’s narratives. Second, care is located at the most radical point of collision in this field of conflict, that is, the “frontline of value regimes.” It constitutes the socio-ontological foundation upon which capital’s world-ecology inevitably relies, even while being systematically devalued by the law of value. Third, therefore, the political economy of care is not simply an ethical appeal to recognize the value of care labor, but a civilizational task to transform the capitalist value regime itself and to seek a new planetary social contract. Fourth, this task requires Marxism to recover its socio-ontological foundation—a humanistic interest in the life activity conditions of humans and nature—and to restart as a critical theory that places care, dependency, and life maintenance at the center, moving beyond the narrow economic categories of “production/labor.” Through these arguments, this study aims to make three academic contributions. First, it attempts a new synthesis crossing Marxism, feminism, and postcolonial theory by expanding the Capitalocene discussion to the dimension of planetarity and re-establishing the theoretical status of care via Dipesh Chakrabarty’s concept of History 2. Second, by applying Don Kalb’s concept of “value regime” to care studies, it reveals that care is not merely a sub-category of reproduction but the core of political issues where the law of value and moral economy collide. Third, it presents a new starting point for Marxist critical theory by re-illuminating Marx’s socio-ontological presuppositions via the recent works of Søren Mau and Kenneth Knowlton Jr., and positioning care as the core of such presuppositions. Ultimately, this study intends to ground the political economy of care as a theoretical and normative resource that enables the imagination of alternative social forms in the era of planetary crisis.

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2026, Vol.77, No. All Issues