2017, Vol.23, No.3

The Postwar Regime and the Status of the Magazine 'Huimang(Hope)' in the 1950s

Kong Im Soon | 2017, 23(3) | pp.9~55 | number of Cited : 14

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This paper examined the magazine the magazine in the context of the 1950s. The magazine 'Huimang(Hope)' is an expression that encompasses Huimang(Hope) with Weekly Huimang(Hope). I combined these two magazines and referred to them collectively as 'Huimang(Hope)' because they were different from produced by Hope Publishing Company the other magazines. In this paper, I approached the magazine 'Huimang(Hope)' in a contemporary context and meaning, specifically focusing on Huimang(Hope) which was launched in July 1951 and Weekly Huimang(Hope), based on the explanatory code of the postwar regime. The postwar regime is the term I assume to refer to the articulation and connection that led to 'a quasi-state of war-war-postwar'. The postwar regime is also a concept that signifies the particularity of Korean society in the 1950s, which was undergoing a time lag in comparison with neighboring Japan, a colonial ruler and defeated nation, which declared in 1955 that "the postwar period is over". The postwar regime of the 1950s intertwined the global Cold War with the regional postwar being a time lag, anti-communism, reconstruction discourses, and the governance of aid and censorship which created contradictions and tensions by pursuit of profits of publishing capital. The central point of Chapters 1 and 2 was that the transformation and renewal of Huimang(Hope), which has been regarded as a representative mass entertainment magazine, should be examined in relation to the postwar regime. Despite the fact that the magazine 'Huimang(Hope)' was published throughout the 1950s, it has not been thoroughly reviewed due to its limited accessibility. In chapter 3, the arrangement of the corners and the contents of the articles were examined based on the discussions presented in Chapters 1 and 2. The criticism of Shin Namcheol's "Americanism of life style" in North Korea focused on Huimang(Hope) with Shintaeyan and Yeosunggye(Woman World) as notorious magazines. The Huimang(Hope) was labeled as an active distributor of the "Americanism of life style" from North Korea because it stimulated the enthusiasm and desire for the Americanism of its readers. However it also mediated and exhibited female sexuality as postwar issues caused by the presence of the US Armed Forces and Army base in Korea, which was expanded for the war. In Chapter 3, I found that the magazine 'Huimang(Hope)' similar to other popular magazines used a media strategy in which the rapid Americanism of postwar Korean society divided the negativity of the subculture that was associated with excess of female sexuality into the high culture of so-called intellectuals and power elites. In Chapter 4, I concluded that this transformational aspect of the magazine 'Huimang(Hope)' was a way of existence of the popular magazines in the 1950s associated with the postwar regime.

Narrative of Individuals in Huimang(Hope), a Magazine in the 1950s

KIM YEONSOOK | 2017, 23(3) | pp.57~93 | number of Cited : 7

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The primary purpose of this paper is to review the popular magazine Huimang(Hope) to analyze its articles on figures, interviews, columns, and interpersonal skills so as to explore the narratives of individuals in the 1950s. This analysis is expected to reveal the specific outline at the point where the then popular narratives and state narratives joined together. The analysis revealed the following features: First, the articles on figures decreased the general success stories and the stories of overcoming difficulties significantly. Second, the narratives of individuals focused on the stories of company employees which were newly emphasized and accounted for most of the articles. Third, as a representative example of the story of company employees, 「5-Minute Interview」 serial articles revealed the following thing: Overall, diverse jobs appeared, but most of them were commoners' jobs/labor, and they included even despised jobs/labor. Interviewees explained their lives and emphasized ethics of job/ethics of labor. Their common key values included patience, dedication, vocation and sense of mission. Thus, regardless of individuals' success, labor itself was highlighted as positive. Such an attitude was the internalization of a kind of ascetic resignation and abstinence, and had the same context as the Western view of vocational job. In that new way, the magazine Huimang(Hope) defined individuals in the 1950s. In the narratives of diverse professional workers, the prototype of the non-subjective and involuntary working man was formed. In the process of modernization before and after Korean War, the popular magazine thus explored the origin of deploying and defining professional workers/laborers. Furthermore, individuals as laboring humans continued to embrace the economic development-friendly values in the capitalist/industrial society, such as frugality, sincerity, patience/self-determination, dedication, and sense of duty, and they were praised as industrial warriors in the 1960s to 1970s.

The Establishment Methods of Representation of "Hope" and Cultural Politics in the Literature Section of Huimang(Hope)-With a focus on the literature section of the monthly Huimang(Hope) in the 1950s

Im Eun Hee | 2017, 23(3) | pp.95~130 | number of Cited : 5

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A Study on the Representation of "Hope" in the Magazine Huimang(Hope), Published During the Wartime -Focusing on the "Child and Youth Discourse"

Choi Bae Eun | 2017, 23(3) | pp.131~159 | number of Cited : 6

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In the 1950s, the magazine Huimang(Hope) was published in order to support the national efforts in leading the cultural education of the public, reconstructing the country, and paving the way for the future during the wartime, which was a time of destruction and loss. Accordingly, the exploration of "hope", which was represented in the magazine, is not only the key to understanding the magazine, but also a way to considering its significance and limits. It is true that the magazine represented "hope" from a variety of discourses. However, in this study, I considered "hope" from the "Child and Youth Discourse." In Huimang(Hope), minors stood for both the hope in the future and the despair in the present. Unlike the other juvenile journals, in which children and youth symbolized the hope for the future, in Huimang(Hope), children and youth had different representations according to their social status and talents. For example, the children with respectable parents and a happy family, the students who were able to study without concerns about tuition fees, and the geniuses with outstanding talents represented as the "hope" to make our the future better. However, orphans, biracial children, self-supporting students, child laborers, and juvenile delinquents are represented as the "despair" in the present. Since these children and youth were seen as defective by society, they became objects of removal, alarm, suspension, purification, sympathy, and indifference. In conclusion, it is safe to say that in Huimang(Hope), the subject of reconstruction was the ruling elite. This kind of elitism is still prevalent in our society today. To our dismay, the more most of parents are trying to make their children another elite, the more the "hope" in our society disappears. The root of this irony can be found in the magazine Huimang(Hope). This study is important because, in the sense that I examined the relatively unknown magazine Huimang(Hope), and uncovered somewhat of its significance and limits. However, I think that a comparative study should be performed with other contemporary journals.

Challenges and Media Strategies of the Weekly Huimang(Hope)

Choi, Mi-Jin | 2017, 23(3) | pp.161~201 | number of Cited : 8

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The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the media orientations and strategies of Weekly Huimang(Hope) by empirically reconstructing it. This magazine was first published by Huimangsa in 1955 as a part of an aggressive magazine chain strategy. It was published regularly for over two years and had a literary coterie and editorial system that consisted mainly of journalists. With the slogan of "A magazine like a newspaper, a newspaper like a magazine," the editorial line of the Weekly Huimang(Hope) was in interpretative journalism, which inherited the journalism spirit of the Saehan Minbo (This magazine was first issued in 1947). The purpose of the Weekly Huimang(Hope) was to contribute to its readers' demand for knowledge and literary arts while getting well again the fairness and publicness of journalism, and to make a new culture of public opinion. The Weekly Huimang(Hope) had a media strategy that was fixated on enhancing the uniqueness and popularity of interpretative journalism, which operated experimentally and stably during the period of the first editorial director. The strategy of interpretative journalism was intended to contribute to a high quality public opinion by increasing the weight of commentary and diversifying the specializations. The strategy for enhancing the popularity of interpretative journalism involved softening the news, expanding the interview articles, and presenting a diversification of pop arts and tastes. This further enhanced the spontaneity and accessibility of the public readers while revealing the point of contact with the commercialization strategy of the Hankook Ilbo Sunday edition (first issued in 1954). However, during the period of the second editorial director, there was a frequent publication delay due to unfavorable factors, such as the severe allegation of line editing and the transfer of the literary coteries. Starting with its innovative issue, the Weekly Huimang(Hope) attempted to rise again, but it was discontinued without notice on September 1958 amid management aggravation and indirect political pressure. Nevertheless, the Weekly Huimang(Hope) is significant because it reflects the magazine-culture of the 1950s. It interacted with its readers with a journalism spirit that magazines should pursue in the rapidly changing post-war society. It also demonstrated a creative planning ability and aggressive operation strategy that enabled it to cope with commercialization demands. Furthermore, it cultivated human infra and developed cultural contents that led to the age of weekly magazines in the 1960s.

A Post-war Reconstructed City Imagined in the Magazine Huimang(Hope)

han Young Hyeon | 2017, 23(3) | pp.203~242 | number of Cited : 7

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This research aimed to explore popular culture and policy based on "space," and centered on articles on a "post-war city" that were published in the magazine Huimang(Hope). Articles in the magazine that related to various dark spaces inside post-war cities were recalled to establish a discourse on "hope." The magazine Huimang(Hope) defined specific spaces in post-war Seoul as places of "darkness" and "blackness," and connected them with various by-products of wars and pre-modernism to produce a series of discourses that combined other beings that should be removed for reconstruction. The magazine also took advantage of the image of the darkness of a space when describing the dark space inside cities. By reflecting society's negative emotions of "anxiety" and "fear" that had been experienced in post-war irrationality and decadence on the space existing inside cities, the "dark phase" of the cities can be interpreted as a space that should be neglected or eradicated by the public. When it comes to running the emotional policy of the public, a "discourse on security" for dark spaces inside cities, which was published in the magazine, worked effectively. Through this, the legitimacy and necessity of security were effectively connected with the establishment of a discourse on "hope." Meanwhile, the magazine Huimang(Hope) tried to evoke a "modern city" in the imagination about a post-war reconstructed city. Such discourses worked as a mechanism that relieved the people's post-war awareness of a miserable reality in the continuity with a discourse on "hope" and encouraged them to have a hopeful imagination about the future. The magazine Huimang(Hope) tried to maintain its unique characteristics by sharing the geographic features of the media in the 1950s, as well as publishing various articles to establish discourses on "hope." The continuous efforts of the magazine to face the scars of wars through imagining a post-war reconstructed city and to develop a discourse on hope through practical sites where people lived, such as spaces, can be seen as characteristics that contributed to its significance as a public magazine.

Emergence and Meanings of a Strategic Misogynistic Narrative - focus on the Webtoon Series A Beautiful Soldier

Koo, Ja-jun | 2017, 23(3) | pp.245~276 | number of Cited : 4

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A webtoon series titled A Beautiful Soldier, whose official serial publication began on Naver on February 15, 2015, has caused a lot of controversy for its "Misogyny". It is interesting that the webtoon series has enjoyed tremendous popularity and broad support from its readers despite increase resistance and criticism against it. That is, its popularity is based on not only online community 'Ilbe', which have continued to produce hate discourses, but also extensive support from male webtoon readers of the young generation that were sensitive to "reverse discrimination" against men. This study thus set out to investigate the backgrounds and meanings of an "aggressive" misogynistic narrative to address men's complaints about reverse discrimination such as A Beautiful Soldier by reviewing the narratives of the young generation on the Web and in webtoons. The publication of The Generation of 880,000 Won brought huge changes to the self-perception of the young generation as well as the society's view of the young generation. The medium of webtoons has depicted the new self-narratives of the generation most actively. One genre of webtoons depicts the daily life of the young generation as campus dramas, which have been neglected by the established media, and reveals how the young generation in pain forms a sense of solidarity and expresses their anger about "free riders." Then the members of Ilbe have presented Jeolla Provinces, the Left Wing, and women as imaginative "free riders" and turned the narrative of the young generation toward the Far Right. Misogyny is, in particular, accompanied by active "strategies" to "correct" the current gender structure and can thus be called the core of "their problematic practice." A Beautiful Soldier reflects the characteristics of misogyny based on those strategies. It points out women as unfair beneficiaries who exempt from military service, clearly presents the desirable image of women, and proposes corrective strategies and alternatives. While basing his webtoon series on vivid depiction and anger at military life found in such old narratives as Old Solders' Songs by Gian 84, the cartoonist presents gender switch and maximizes anger and imaginative punishment toward women. Similar to the misogyny expressed by Ilbe, which is familiar yet new, the webtoon series have succeeded in developing a narrative of punishing and correcting women who are "free riders", which have not been discussed in the public sphere, on the Naver platform by using language that is familiar to the young generation. There is no specific mention about who are "free riders" in the narrative of the webtoon series, of course, but it constantly arouses the fact that women are free riders according to its setting of gender switch itself.

A Study on the Content and Characteristics of a Book Purchase Ledger of Heungsadahn(興士團)

Kwon Duyeon | 2017, 23(3) | pp.277~314 | number of Cited : 0

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Study on the Characters of Gumiho and Jiangshi as Marginal Men Wandering the "Liminal Space"

Soongbeum Ahn , johanki | 2017, 23(3) | pp.315~350 | number of Cited : 8

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Mythical creatures in East Asian culture was historically referred to as "peculiar beings that surpass common sense." However, in a number of recent films, mythical creatures have been breaking away from that negative stereotype. They often overturn the values that have been repeatedly reconstituted by human society, and reveal the violent system that has been concealed. This study poses a question about the binary opposite relationship between the colonizer and the colonized, and examines the mythical creatures that appear in East Asian films, namely gumiho (Korea) and jiangshi (China) using the discourse proposed by Homi K. Bhaba who explored the inside and outside of boundaries. According to Bhaba's proposition, East Asian mythical creatures function as "marginal men" who wander the "liminal space." One must note that this study explores characters in East Asian films that call for an ethical introspection at a different magnitude and nature. A general summary of the characteristics of gumiho and jiangshi is as follows. First, gumihos are marginal men that practice "mimicry" of humans and intrude into human society. Their attempt to "become human" reconfirms the irreconcilable discrepancy between human and non-human, which highlights the heterogeneous nature that prevents contact with the human world. In particular, bound by the mechanism of a "gaze," their tragic deaths encourage contemplation about the irrationality of manmade boundaries. Jiangshis appear as the Others who have been marginalized from human society due to a "deficiency" arising from various reasons. They take the form of "marginal men" that exist within the boundary between life and death, and between a hometown and a strange place. Their attempt to return to the human world is rejected most of the time, revealing the very evidence of exclusion and inherent violence that persists in human society. This study clarifies the sociocultural implication of mythical creatures in East Asia. I look forward to a future expansion of this research on the ethical and symbolic connotations attached to the image of the Other as perceived by the general public.

Diaspora's Political Experience and the Location of Emotion -A Study of Choi Inhun's Novels The Plaza, The Gray Man, and Seoyugi

Oh, Youn-ho | 2017, 23(3) | pp.351~376 | number of Cited : 0

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A Study on 1970s Subculture through the Reception of Hong Kong Martial Art Films -Focusing on the Sentiments of Discount Theater Audiences

Lee, Gil-sung | 2017, 23(3) | pp.377~414 | number of Cited : 5

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The youth culture of the 1960s, represented by young adult films, were largely divided into the youth culture centered on university students and residual subculture in the 1970s: the mainstream youth culture consisted of draught beer, jeans, folk songs, and socially critical films produced by directors who were part of the Yeongsang-sidae (literally the "age of images") Movement, and the subculture bloomed among young laborers and teens, excluding university students and intellectuals, and was represented by lewd magazines such as Sunday Seoul, martial arts novels, erotic novels, comic book, and violent Hong Kong martial arts films. This study explores this subculture that flourished opposite the youth culture in the 1970s by analyzing popular martial arts films from Hong Kong. The type of such subcultures is dubbed the discount theater culture for the purpose of this paper. Discount theaters were film theaters located in the outskirts of cities, which mainly screened Hong Kong martial arts films and B action movies. They were particularly popular among teenagers and young laborers for their affordable admission fees and easy accessibility. However, discount theaters were also considered a part of social problems due to the decrepit facilities and their locations in sleazy neighborhoods. While the university student-centered youth culture received social spotlight and became the topic of dynamic discussion at the time, the discount theater culture was not properly examined or studied, and only received criticisms from contemporary critics who deemed the culture as the hotbed of degenerative lowbrow culture. Recently, however, the view of popular culture began to change, and many started to make attempts to explore and understand the sentiments of subcultures. In this context, academics began to discuss new research frames that break from focusing on simple narratives and displays of excessive sexuality and violence. In the 1970s, Hong Kong films were a type of "youth films." Young protagonists had superhuman strength, and they met their deaths because of their pride or because they sacrificed themselves to save their friends. They rebelled against society, and they were not tied to loyalty or moral justice. Such attitudes were already in conflict with the ethical beliefs of the previous generation, and the brutal violence on physical bodies along with excessive displays of deaths in the films were linked to the implicit taboos in society that the youths challenged. These new sentiments about the physical body were also connected to the appeal of fighting scenes in films starring Bruce Lee. His body was a testament to the raw physical strength of the human body and the ideal state one's body can reach through training. The acquisition of physical strength and abilities through training was the only defense mechanism that the socially disadvantaged people could think of. In the oppressive political situation of the 1970s, the agents of the discount theater culture were unable to criticize the society with logic and metaphors as the agents of the youth culture. Instead, they revealed their sentiments through self-inflicted damage to their bodies and excessive displays. Such displays of sentiments through the physical bodies instead of verbal expressions were a challenge to taboos, which were unable to be interpreted and understood within the cultural discourse of the 1970s.

The Age of KINO -The Film Magazine KINO and the Cultural Politics of the "Critical Cinephilia" in the 1990s

Sunjoo Lee | 2017, 23(3) | pp.415~452 | number of Cited : 7

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This paper examines the discursive practices of the Korean monthly film magazine KINO in terms of the ideas of "critical cinephilia" and "productive disenchantment." In the 1990s, known as the "age of culture" and the "renaissance of Korean cinema." the magazine led the way in producing alternative film discourses and encouraging readers to recognize cinema as an object of academic study and criticism. By examining the magazine's discursive practices, this paper aims to explore the cultural politics of the magazine that reflected on the ontology of cinema and its spectators, the relationship between cinema and society, and the cinema as a cultural practice. The idea of "productive disenchantment" was coined by Thomas Elsaesser when he posited that the development of Anglophone and European contemporary film theories in the 1970s benefited from the "transition from the love of cinema to the critical viewing and analysis of it." This idea is dialectical in that the film theories' distanciation from cinema was derived from the love of cinema. Overcoming the existing views that KINO was either the evangelist of ghettorized younghwagwang (film mania) culture or a simple copycat of Western auteurism, this paper argues that the dialectic of distanciation and attraction formed KINO's "critical cinephilia." This paper also states that the magazine's textual activities, including its compressed reception of Western film theories, philosophy, and critical theories, interventions into the contemporary sites of Korean film culture, and invitation to the alliance of cinephiles, all were the discursive practices of critical viewing based on the spirit of "productive disenchantment." In addition to providing a content analysis of the magazine, this paper also intends to evaluate the magazine's pursuit of "critical cinephilia" by positioning it within the larger context of the film culture of the 1990s. To this end, this paper explores the magazine's process of appropriating and translating Western film theories, critical philosophy, and cultural studies in the context of the cultural politics of the 1990s marked by the "age of culture." In doing so, it argues that KINO's discursive practices sought to form critical cinephiles who would go beyond the "manias" that the contemporary discourses of cultural studies highlighted as the subject of omnivore and dilettante if serious and devoted consumers.

Conditions and Choices in the representation of "Youth" Appearing in the 1960s Narrative

Lee-Hokyu | 2017, 23(3) | pp.453~486 | number of Cited : 4

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A Study on Persuasive Games by Ian Bogost

Jung Yeop Lee | 2017, 23(3) | pp.489~520 | number of Cited : 7

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KJCKorea
Journal Central

Journal of Popular Narrative 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.85

2017, Vol.23, No.3