KJCKorea
Journal Central

This study aims to examine the characteristics of local discourse and local extinction narratives by country while comparing and examining Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean dramas. In particular, the purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in the establishment of regional, national, and local relations in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, and through this, the differences in local ideology and local extinction narratives by country are examined. In addition, through this, the purpose of this study is to find out that the theory of local extinction repeats the gendered and racialized exclusion and extinction structure implied in settler colonialism as a product of the history of the settler colonial state. In this process, the specific emotional structure of settler colonialism is to be examined in relation to the movement of homecoming and the affect of healing accompanying it.

This paper identified the current status of healing contents in bestsellers of the 2020s and analyzed the characteristics of healing discourse. In the early 2010s, healing discourse became popular in Korean society, and around 2020, it has begun to critically reflect on the early healing discourse. Healing content began to be organized around books and expanded to the media. Even in the post-COVID-19 era, healing content continues to be a powerful force in the publishing market. However, academic research on healing content and discourse has not progressed since the mid-2010s. Therefore, this paper summarized the current status of healing content in the publishing market since the mid-2010s and analyzed the characteristics and limitations of healing discourse in bestselling healing content. Bestsellers in the 2020s have shifted from essays to novels. While the essays focused on inner reflection, the novels showed a life that goes beyond the individual, empathizing and communicating with others. The message of the healing novel seemed to go beyond the limits of early healing discourse. It revealed a rejection of the method of strengthening neoliberal governmentality in which social problems were attributed to individual responsibility, and the individual subject isolated. However, the community depicted in the healing novels was exclusive, consisting only of people who perfectly embodied the normality of society. The protagonists of the healing novels were able to establish a healing community because they had achieved success through their individual abilities in a meritocratic society, and in order to enter the healing community, they had to embody the speech and manners of those who had acquired cultural capital. On the surface, healing discourse of the 2020s ostensibly advocated the establishment of a social self and solidarity with the others, but behind it, it excluded the socially marginalized group without economic, social, and cultural capital. While critical reflections on renewing healing discourses have been ongoing in the academic and cultural fields, there has been a lack of analysis of best-selling healing content. This paper proposed the possibility of a new change in the healing discourse by securing a critical perspective on healing content that is widely and influentially distributed.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the representation of non-human animals and healing discourses are combined in Korean animal-toons. The term ‘animal toon’ refers to a subgenre of Korean webtoons that mainly deals with the experiences of raising animals. It grew up in the social, economic, and cultural context of the so-called ‘The age of 10 million of pets’ and was heavily influenced by the phenomenon of "healing" as a secular self-improvement discourse. The popular and academic discourse of companion animals is organized around the ‘pet effect’ which refers to the psychological and physical benefits of the animals. Animal toons are a cultural practice that is produced within and reinforces this discourse. In Chapter 2, I examined animal toons that feature humans finding solace in animals. In these narratives, humans are the ones who endow animals with the characteristic of 'unconditional love' and derive psychological benefits from it. Korean animal toons have reinforced this human-nonhuman economic relationship by portraying animals as ‘the lovable’ but on the other hand, Korean animal toons also point to the problem of human psychological exploitation of animals. Recent animal toons are eager to reproduce the catastrophe that can occur when animals fail to live up to expectations of lovability. In Chapter 3, I explored the ways in which animal cartoons reinforce discourse of ‘healing’ by emphasizing human self-discipline. More recent animal toons tend to emphasize the agency of humans in caring for animals. Humans are portrayed as agents who are able to establish positive relationships with animals after ‘recovering’ a strong self. The discourse of healing of animal toons ultimately narrativizes the strengthening of human agency. This study critically reflects on the ways in which Korean animal toons reproduce the ‘pet effect’, and examines the ways in which animal toons critically reinforce discourse of healing. In doing so, it critiques the ways in which Korean animal toons mobilize animals for healing purposes and reconstructs the ways in which discourse of healing permeate complex cultural practices.